Something To Talk About
by SouthernBella04
Summary: This fan fic starts somewhere around the time of 24 Candles. Betty has made a promise to stay away from Gio, because she loves Henry. However, fate has a different plan in mind for her. Some B/H and then B/G.
1. The Unexpected Visitor

Readers, this is a new fic that I have created to perhaps ease the pain that we are all suffering, whether we be Benry fans, Getty fans, Detty fans, or probably others that I haven't mentioned. I hope you enjoy my vision of how the rest of the season, or beyond, might go.:-)

Betty looked up to the 2nd story window where her bedroom was. With no tree in sight, she wondered how Hilda was ever able to do it. Betty sighed and noticed the drain pipe running close to her window. Slowly she began to devise a plan about how to climb up the drain pipe and into her bedroom window. With an idea in mind, she slowly inched herself up the pipe and to the window ledge. As she peeked into her room, she noticed a lump in her bed. _Probably Hilda. She forgot where her room was from time to time when she had a little too much to drink_, thought Betty. As quietly as possible, she lifted the window up and slowly climbed through the window. Her skirt got caught on a piece of metal and as she tried to tug it free, she plummeted onto her floor.

"Oww. I really need to get better at this, Hilda." She casually spoke to the lump in the bed that was beginning to stir. "Don't tell papi, alright. Well, I know that you're slowly waking up…but I just wanted to let you know that I had a terrific time with Henry last night. I can't wait to tell you more about it once you're awake." She smiled and patted the lump and walked happily down the stairs.

"Good morning everyone. How are…" Betty stopped dead in her tracks and was completely surprised to see Hilda standing in front of her.

"You know, papi already knows you were out last night. You could have used the door." Hilda smiled and gave Betty a plate of eggs and some orange juice.

"I thought you were in my bed up there." Betty said, looking completely confused.

"Why would I be in your bed?" Hilda raised her eyebrow and looked at her sister, perplexed.

"Well sometimes when you're drunk, you forget that my room isn't yours and you fall asleep in my bed." Betty paused and continued. "Well if you're not in my bed, then who did I just pat down?" Betty had a look of worry on her face.

"Good morning everyone. Thanks for letting me sleep here last night. I really enjoyed the part where Betty patted me down." Gio had just wandered down the stairs and Betty began to flush a deep shade of crimson. She noticed that Gio's hair was cut short.

"What's he doing here?" she asked angrily.

"Oh well, papi needed help with something and he had one too many beers. Since we knew that you wouldn't be here last night, we let Gio sleep in your bed." Hilda informed Betty as Betty gave a look of disgust.

"You let him sleep in my bed. Gross, now I have to wash the sheets…like…five times." Betty rolled her eyes as Gio sat down at the table.

"So Betty, how come you never come to see me anymore? It's been what…like 2 months or so." Gio took a sip of orange juice and grinned at her.

"It's not like we're friends Gio. So what, do we have a schedule of how many times a day we're supposed to see one another? Last I checked it was a free country and I was allowed to see whomever I wanted, whenever I wanted. So there." Betty said hotly.

"Whoa, calm down. I was just asking." Gio said defensively. "These are really good eggs Hilda. Who made them?" Gio asked, taking a bite out of the eggs. He grinned once more at Betty and winked. Betty rolled her eyes and went into the living room.

"Papi made them. He put in a secret ingredient that he'll never tell us about." Hilda shrugged and sat down next to Gio.

"Look, thanks for letting me crash here last night, but I've really got to go. I got a new guy opened the shop who has no idea what the hell he is doing. With any luck, he'll manage to completely destroy the place." Gio thanked Hilda for the breakfast and grabbed his jacket and keys. "See you around Hilda. Oh and Betty…you'll have to tell me about your night with Henry, like you promised upstairs." Gio popped his head in the living room and winked at Betty. Betty immediately rolled her eyes, but didn't acknowledge him verbally.

"What was that all about, Betty?" Hilda asked after she showed Gio to the door. She had a puzzled look on her face as she confronted her sister.

"Oh, I was just going to tell you what an incredible night I had with Henry…" Betty trailed off.

"No, I meant about Gio. Why are you being so mean to him? He came over last night to help with another busted pipe and he was a little disappointed that you weren't around. He thinks you've been avoiding him or something." Hilda waited for Betty to respond.

"Well, I have. Henry made me promise that I wouldn't see Gio anymore. That's all." Betty shrugged and continued to watch TV.

"Henry made you, or you were the one that didn't want to see Gio again?" Hilda was quick to catch on when it came to guy problems.

"It doesn't matter, alright. What's done is done. Where are dad and Justin?" Betty immediately changed the subject.

"Oh out for some male bonding time. Justin is taking papi for a clothing makeover, or something like that." Hilda got up and went back to washing dishes.

"I'm going into the office today a little earlier than normal. I'll be here tonight though. Henry and I don't have anything planned…" Betty paused and waited for her sister's attention and then continued. "We don't have anything planned tonight…because this weekend he's taking me on a weekend getaway for my birthday." Betty sat down at the kitchen table excitedly.

"That's great." Hilda said unenthusiastically.

"What's wrong?" Betty asked curiously.

"It's just that we were planning on doing something to celebrate your birthday. Papi, was so excited and has been planning something special for months now. It's no biggie though. You've just never spent your birthday away from home before." Hilda said as she finished the last dish and turned to face her sister.

"I'm sorry, but Henry and I only have 1 month left together and we want to make it really special." Betty pleaded for her sister to understand.

"I understand." Hilda said, though she was still not too convincing.

"Look, I have to go into work now. Tell dad and Justin I said 'hi'." Betty kissed her sister on the cheek and grabbed her purse before heading out the door.

The cool spring morning hit Betty in the face as she walked to work. It was unusually cold for this time of the season, so Betty was bundled up. As she passed Gio's sandwich shop, she sped up, making sure that if she was seen, she looked as though she was too busy to stop in. When she made it into Mode without Gio coming out, to her relief, she went straight to her desk and immediately began answering emails.

"Morning, beautiful!" Henry purred into Betty's ear and kissed her on the cheek. Betty couldn't help but smile because Henry treated her like a princess and this was something she could get used to.

"Sorry I had to leave so early this morning. I had to get here early." She sighed and turned to face Henry.

"Everything alright in the Suarez casa?" Henry chuckled at his spanglish and sat on the edge of her desk.

"Yeah…it's…great…never better." She smiled and took Henry's hand. "So, when are you telling me where you're going to take me this weekend? You're not going to keep me in the blue are you?" Betty stood up and embraced Henry.

"It's a birthday surprise for the prettiest girl in my life." Henry grinned and kissed Betty on the cheek again. "I just wanted to come up and see you. I have to go work on an accounting issue that Kenny screwed up. So if you could meet at my place tomorrow…say around 3 in the afternoon with your bags packed. This is going to be one experience that you'll never forget." Henry winked and smiled bashfully as he backed up, not taking his eyes off Betty.

"Uh, Henry…watch out for the…" Betty tried to warn him about the table he was about to run into, but it was too late. Henry ran into a table full of breakfast. Embarrassed, he slowly stepped away and headed for the elevator and out of Betty's sight.

"Thanks to your boyfriend, breakfast has been ruined." Amanda informed Betty as she looked at the food on the floor with disgust.

"It's not like you eat anyway." Betty said sarcastically before walking over to Daniel's office and knocking. He looked up and smiled and motioned for her to come in.

"Hey Betty, I was wondering if you could take care of this for me?" Daniel asked before he gave her a gigantic stack of papers to be filed. Betty groaned and turned to leave.

"Oh Daniel, just so you know…I have to leave early tomorrow. Henry's planned a special weekend get-away." She turned to face Daniel, who smiled.

"Sure, that's fine. You could probably use a nice and relaxing weekend, just the two of you. Renee and I are going to have a weekend of our own. Although…not too sure if it will be relaxing or not." Daniel grinned.

"Eww…and that breaks boss/secretary boundaries right there…" Betty cringing and walked away as Daniel chuckled.

The rest of the day and night went by uneventfully and Betty looked at her packed suitcase that was ready to go for her trip with Henry. She smiled to herself and eventually fell asleep. When she awoke, sunshine poured into her window and she immediately got out of bed. Butterflies were fluttering in her stomach and she knew that she was only hours away from her trip with Henry. Quickly, she dressed for work and headed downstairs.

"Good morning everyone." She said cheerfully as her dad gave her a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

"Did you sleep well, Betty?" he asked as he flipped a pancake over. There was a small look of sadness in his eyes, but Betty pushed it to the side.

"I slept really well. I'm going into work for a few hours and then heading to Henry's before he whisks me away on a romantic weekend." Betty sighed and ate her breakfast in a hurry. "Well, I'm going to go ahead and head out. See you all on Sunday." She smiled and gathered all of her things before leaving.

A thought suddenly struck Betty, a thought that made her feel guilty as she left her house. She noticed the look her father gave her and knew it was because tomorrow was her birthday and she wasn't spending it at home. She had Henry though, and he was important to her. Still, she couldn't shake the sadness from her father's face. She frowned as she sat at her desk and returned all of the unanswered phone calls. The hours passed and before Betty knew it, it was 2:30 and time to meet up with Henry at his place.

"So you'll have to fill me in on all of the juicy details!" a pregnant Christina told her over the phone.

"Don't worry. I'm sure there will be lots to tell. Henry has refused to tell me where he is taking me. He knows how much I love surprises, so I'm sure wherever he takes me is going to be fantastic!" Betty hung up the phone and wandered into Henry's apartment building. She grew more and more excited as her hand reached for Henry's doorbell.

"This is it." She sighed and spoke to herself. "Henry and I are about to have the weekend we deserve. It will be complete with horses and roses and everything I could possibly dream of." She smiled and rang the doorbell. It took a few moments for the door to open, but to Betty's surprise it wasn't who she was expecting.

"Hi, Betty! Henry told me that you're birthday is tomorrow, so I baked you some cupcakes!" I very pregnant Charlie stood in front of Betty with a broad smile on her face. "I see that you have a suitcase. Did you just get back from a vacation or something?" Charlie invited a confused Betty in. Betty looked around and met eyes with Henry.

"Charlie, can Betty and I have a minute alone on the balcony?" Henry nodded toward the balcony and Betty followed, closing the glass door behind her.

"What's going on? I thought we were supposed to have a romantic weekend together. What is she doing here?" Betty asked angrily.

"She said that her doctor thought it best if she got away from Tucson for the weekend. Something about it being healthy for the baby." Henry shrugged.

"So where does that leave us then?" Betty looked into Henry's eyes and felt tears swelling up, but she held them back.

"I'm sorry Betty, but I'm going to have to cancel our weekend. I promise that we'll be able to reschedule." Henry held her hands in his and drew her close.

Betty released herself from him immediately. "But when? You act like you have all of this time together. We only have about a month, Henry. A month!" Betty opened the glass door and turned back to face him. "I'm sorry for intruding. Have a nice weekend." She frowned at Henry and managed a smile for a bubbly Charlie before leaving with her suitcase in tow.

Betty fought hard against the tears, and it was really difficult to do. She called for a cab to take her back to her house. Betty felt rejected and defeated, an emotions she wasn't used to feeling.


	2. Dreams and Surprises

**Disclaimer: This chapter is based on some of the promo pics for the next episode, so be forewarned. Also, I have included a small part where the TV show Lost is discussed.**

When Betty came straight home, she went right up to her bedroom. Her family knew that something didn't happen as Betty expected, so they gave her the space she needed. Betty took off her glasses and held her favorite teddy bear tightly in her arms as she lay in bed and thought about her disappointment with Henry. As dinnertime approached, Betty felt herself get hungry and she smelled empanadas being cooked by her father. Not caring how she looked, she wandered downstairs.

"Happy birthday, Betty!" her family cried in unison.

"My birthday's tomorrow." She responded nonchalantly. As much as she appreciated her family's effort, she wasn't in the mood for surprises.

"Betty, Henry called us to give a heads up about the situation. I'm really sorry that happened." Ignacio frowned and embraced his daughter. Immediately Betty felt the stinging tears begin to fall.

"I don't understand why she had to show up and ruin everything. She always seems to ruin everything between Henry and I." Betty knew she was being rather harsh on Charlie, but she wanted everything to be perfect with Henry.

"I know, mija. However, Charlie is the mother of Henry's child. Escúcheme, as much as I hate to say it…she comes first." Ignacio knew those were not the words Betty wanted to hear. Nonetheless, it was better for her to know.

"Yeah, but dad…I'm the girlfriend." Betty informed him bitterly. She sat down at the kitchen table tartly and began to drink some milk.

"Here, have some dinner. Things will get better, I promise. At least you have tomorrow to look forward to. We're excited that you'll actually be here." Ignacio gave Hilda a meaningful look. Justin opened his mouth to say something, but Hilda stopped him. Betty was too let down by Charlie's unexpected arrival to notice.

"Thanks." She mumbled as she ate her dinner and finished her milk. "I think I'm going to go ahead and call it a night." She responded cheerlessly.

"Are you sure? Papi rented _Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants_. I know it's your favorite movie. Then maybe we can tempt you with Lost. I know you can't resist a bunch of sexy guys trapped on an island. I won't take no for an answer." Hilda was persistent in trying to cheer her sister up.

Betty sighed. "Well alright. I guess I can…for Sawyer." She shrugged and decided she'd rather not be antisocial for her family's sake.

"I knew I had you with Lost. If you ask me though the plot has gotten so confusing. Good thing I've got you and Justin to explain it to me." Hilda laughed and collected the dishes.

Betty sat with her family first through the _Sisterhood_ movie and then through a marathon of Lost. Betty finally yawned from exhaustion and officially decided to call it a night. "Thanks for cheering me up." She lied. Although it helped to see Jack and Sawyer get into a heated argument, it still couldn't take her mind off Henry.

"Goodnight, Betty." Hilda waved from the couch. She was the only one awake. Both Ignacio and Justin managed to fall asleep as Boone and Locke discovered the Hatch on Lost.

Betty looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. She looked at her clock that read 11:59. She had exactly one minute until her birthday. The beeping of her watch told her that it was now midnight, which meant it was her birthday.

"Happy birthday, Betty. You're finally 24." She said sadly to herself. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she changed into her pajamas and drifted off to sleep. It was this night that she had a peculiar dream. She was on an island after a plane crash. There stood Henry.

"_Hi, Betty. Looks like we survived after all." He smiled and kissed her. This might not be as bad as she thought. Being on an island with Henry was a wonderful dream._

"_Henry, my brave knight…would you find some fruit and slaughter a pig?" Betty asked sweetly. Henry nodded and ran off into the jungle terrain._

_Betty sat for a while on the sandy beach. She looked around and to her surprise she saw characters from Lost walking around. Suddenly, she heard movement in the bushes and she stood up and slowly turned around._

"_What are you doing here?" she asked as Charlie, Henry's girlfriend, came out of the bushes. "I would rather be with the Charlie, the heroin addict, from Lost." Betty said scathingly. She resented that Charlie was here on HER island, coming in-between her and HER Henry._

"_I was on the flight. Don't you remember? You and Henry tried to escape from me, but I found you." Charlie smiled. Betty looked down to notice that she was still as pregnant as ever._

"_Too bad you didn't get pregnant on the island." Betty said resentfully knowing what happens to women who get pregnant on the island. She had to smile to herself and admit that it would be one way to get rid of Charlie. Suddenly, she heard more movement in the bushes and she immediately became alert. This time, someone emerged that Betty wasn't expecting._

"_Gio…?" Betty looked at Gio who emerged with his normal grin he saved just for her._

"_Betty, is that any way to greet your gentle lover?" Gio winked and handed her a mango. "For the special birthday girl. I was the only one who remembered." He handed the mango to Betty, who looked at him in disbelief._

"_Oh darn…I guess I forgot to mention to Henry that it was your birthday. Well, I am more important than you…since this is his baby." Charlie smirked and rubbed her baby bump._

"_I told you to stay away from him!" Henry proclaimed defensively as he emerged from the bushes, with nothing in hand._

"_I didn't know he was here!" Betty replied hurriedly._

"_Now Henry, why would she make a promise that you and I both know…and for the record I think she knows too…that she cannot keep." Gio winked and took a big step toward Betty. Betty's heart was pounding, but she never knew what happened next._

Betty sat up in her bed quickly. Her heart was racing and she looked down at her hands, which were both sweating. She then looked over at her faithful teddy. "How come you never have strange dreams?" she asked the bear that she knew wouldn't respond. She looked around and then fell back asleep.

"Aunt Betty…Aunt Betty…get up!" Justin jostled Betty until she woke up. As she opened her eyes she took a look at the alarm clock. 10:37a.m. She slowly lifted her body and looked around. Justin was now bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Hurry, we have something special planned for you!" he ran out of the room. Betty decided to quickly freshen herself up with a shower and then found a pink dress to put on. Skeptically, she made her way down the stairs, not sure what to expect. She couldn't help but smile.

"I don't know what to say…" she trailed off as she looked at the living room, which was highly decorated. There were presents sitting on the table and her family stood around watching her take in the scene.

"We wanted to make your day very special. Have some breakfast and then you can start to open your presents." Hilda grinned and looked over at Ignacio and gave him a meaningful look. Betty, still in awe of the decorations, did not notice this look either.

"Thanks for the breakfast, dad. I really appreciate it. Look, I'm sorry that I wasn't myself yesterday…I just had things on my mind." Betty smiled weakly at her father.

"It's alright. Today is a new day!" he hugged Betty's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "You'd better eat quickly. We want you to open your presents!" He sat down and drank some orange juice.

Betty ate for another ten minutes and finally rinsed off her dishes and placed them into the dishwasher. She walked over to her presents and looked them over. They were all labeled, except for one. She looked at it curiously.

"Oh, open that one last. It's extra special." Hilda smiled at Betty, who had a look of confusion. She shrugged and placed it off to the side.

"Alright…let me start with…" Betty looked at the array of presents, but her father was faster.

"Start with this." Ignacio brought out a cat carrier. "Because I don't like you going to and looking at all of those kitten stories. Here's an actual kitten for your birthday." He smiled as Betty looked into the cage at the frightened kitten.

"Dad…thanks….really." Betty was at a loss for words. She didn't even recollect opening the rest of her gifts. When she looked down at the floor, she realized that she went through all of the gifts. "Thanks for all of the wonderful gifts." She smiled as she began to take the kitten out of the carrier.

"You forgot this one." Ignacio picked up the gift that wasn't labeled.

Betty looked curiously at the gift before opening it. Maybe it was from Henry, she hadn't gotten a gift from him after all. She tore open the wrapping and took one look at the book in confusion. How did Henry know that she didn't have _Goodbye, Columbus_? She noticed that there was a slip of paper inside of the book and she slowly opened the cover. At first she looked shocked, but then she grinned widely. The book wasn't from Henry, it was from Gio. Of course, he would give her a Phillip Roth book.

"How did he…?" Betty began to ask, but Hilda answered for her.

"I don't know how he knew, but he brought it over yesterday before you came back. I guess I casually mentioned that it was your birthday to him. He didn't even ask what you wanted." Hilda shrugged.

Betty looked back down the slip of paper. It looked like an ordinary slip of paper advertising a deli. However, she noticed writing on the back. When she turned it over there was a personalized note on the back that read:

_Climbed any fire escapes recently?_

_Front of Meade Publications 5pm SHARP!_

Betty reread the note. Even though Gio never signed it, she knew the gift was from him. Only Gio knew that she read Phillip Roth books. Surprisingly, this was something that not even Henry knew about. She looked back down at the slip of paper and the personalized note and then back to the front advertisement. Betty looked to her sister for any explanation, but she had none.

"What's this all about?" Betty asked, holding the slip of paper in her hand. Betty felt that Hilda already didn't know, but she wanted to make sure.

Hilda shrugged. " I honestly have no idea. So what are you going to do, Betty? You can't ignore him forever you know…even though you made that dumb promise to Henry. Gio has been nothing but nice to you." Hilda looked at Betty for a response.

"Yeah, but Gio is…" Betty couldn't find her normal words to describe Gio. "…he's annoying. Anyway, I promised not to see Gio…for Henry. I'd appreciate it if you don't tell Gio." Betty turned to leave.

"Betty, I haven't told him anything. Ay, its hard enough finding reasons to tell him why you're not around." Hilda admitted.

"Well you know what…I'm going to do nothing…yep…exactly nothing about it." Betty declared proudly as she crumbled up the paper in her hand and placed it into her pocket. "I think I'm going to spend some time in my room with Gato!" she grabbed the cat carrier.

"So you named your cat after the Spanish term for cat?" Hilda raised her eyebrow. "Whatever…it's your choice, Betty." She went into the living room, leaving Betty alone with the cat carrier in hand.

Betty wandered up to her room and let the cat out of the cage to get adjusted to its surroundings. She took out the crumbled paper and threw it on the nightstand and sat on her bed, with the book in her lap. Betty felt her mind wander to the slip of paper and every now and then, her eyes drifted toward it. She sighed and tried to put it out of her mind. She watched the cat playfully chase its tail. She looked at the crumbled paper and back to the cat. Finally, she sighed and rolled her eyes and grabbed the slip of paper.

"Fine…Gio….I'll just go to this place at 5… but just to tell you once and for all I can never see you again. Simple as that!" she said in a matter of fact tone as she started to read her book.


	3. Gone with the Wind for Betty

Betty stood in front of the Meade building, waiting impatiently for Gio to arrive. It was cold and she didn't want to waste anytime telling Gio that she wouldn't want to see him anymore. Of course, she wanted to see him again. He was fun and one of those guys that would be the life of a party. He paid attention to her and what she stood for and she appreciated that. Henry, however, did not appreciate what Gio was doing for Betty. As Betty looked down at the piece of paper to make sure she was in the right spot, she heard the clip clop of horse hooves and she instinctively looked up. She did a double take as she saw Gio driving a horse buggy.

"Gio, what is all this?" she asked, curiously.

"Well it is your birthday isn't it?" he motioned for me to get in. When I didn't, he hopped down. "So do I have to give you my hand and be all gentleman like?" he gave me a curious look.

"Look, Gio. I came to tell you something." I looked at him nervously.

"Great, well tell me in the buggy. This horse has to eat soon and trust me, a pissed off hungry horse is not something you want me to have to deal with. We might end up in an Oregon Trail crisis. We don't want Oregano to starve to death, get bitten by a snake, or any other disaster that the game can come up with.

"Who's Oregano?" Betty guessed it was the horse, but she was intrigued with Gio. She was interested in the fact that Gio mentioned Oregon Trail.

"The horse of course." He smiled and gave Betty his hand. "Look, how long do I have to hold out my hand? Frankly, I can't keep everything that I have planned, waiting." He grinned and Betty took complete interest from this point on.

"Well I guess one night wouldn't hurt. However, after you do whatever you have planned, I need to talk to you." She allowed Gio to help her into the carriage and Gio jumped up on the other side and began to direct the horse.

"So what do you have planned?" Betty asked him. She wanted to be completely surprised, but at the same time, she wanted to know what was inside Gio's head.

"How's Eggy? Have you been spicing him up a little bit?" Gio asked, changing the subject in order to keep Betty on her toes.

"Oh, he's perfectly fine. Right now, he's with his perfectly pregnant ex having a perfectly perfect evening." She replied scathingly.

"Right…so how do you the Phillip Roth book? I tried to get you a Phil Roth book, but I know how you feel about him." He smiled and continued. "I still have Lizzy's number. I should give her a call." Gio started to take out his phone, but to his surprise, Betty took it out of his hand. "Woa, Betty, now who's jealous?" he chuckled.

"I'm not jealous; I just think that tonight shouldn't involve any phone calls. I don't want to think about Henry…work…Phil Roth…I just want someone to sit with and enjoy a nice night." Betty proclaimed. She looked surprisingly comfortable sitting next to Gio.

Oregano clip clopped down the road at a slow and steady pace. For awhile, Betty and Gio sat in silence. Suddenly, Betty noticed that Oregano stopped in from of Gio's deli.

"I'm on a budget, Betty, but I promise to make you the sandwich of your heart's desire. Have you thought of any better condiments that I might have at my bar? Leave out the boring, please." He opened the door for her and she sat down at a table in the empty deli and thought for a moment.

"Raspberry glaze?" she suggested. Gio laughed and shook his head. "Ok, Gio. I am going to let you surprise me then. If you think you're so high and mighty." She smirked at him as he wandered into the kitchen. Betty sat alone for a moment, but soon decided to follow Gio into the kitchen.

"I see the eater has followed me into the kitchen. My recipes are secret, so I might have to kill you. I couldn't live with that." Gio took out some different types of bread. "I've decided to make you an egg salad sandwich." He grinned.

"Come on, you can be more creative than that." Betty smacked Gio on the arm.

"I was kidding. I do have a new chicken salad recipe that I've been meaning to try." He winked and left Betty waiting. About ten minutes later, he returned with a plate that had a delicious chicken salad sandwich sitting on it. "Try it. The poison wears off soon, so you need to eat now." Gio joked as Betty rolled her eyes.

Betty took one bite and her eyes opened wide. "Wow, Gio, this is really good!" she finished her bit and smiled. "So where did you learn to cook this well?"

"My mom likes to cook. So when I was little she let me help her cook. The great thing about her was that she was willing to experiment and try new things. There was never a dull dinner in the Rossi house. I got a gift of cooking from her. I have always liked to experiment with sandwiches." He paused and thought for a moment. "To me sandwiches may not be attractive on the outside, but on the inside there's something surprising, like you're not expecting it to taste so good. Many people brush off sandwiches as being boring. However, I see sandwiches as something beautiful. They are unique and you can make a sandwich out of anything." He sighed and glanced at Betty. He realized that he unintentionally made a sandwich analogy with something else.

Betty smiled encouragingly at Gio as she finished her sandwich. "Dad is a really good cook. I wish I could have cooked more with him when I was a little girl. I try to experiment with cooking when Henry is around, but he likes his food plain and simple." Betty said regrettably.

"Hey, I thought we were not talking about him tonight, remember?" Gio couldn't believe he was trying to make Betty not think about Henry. Betty grabbed an apple and grabbed Gio by the arm. "Where are you going with that apple?" Gio asked, but followed Betty nonetheless.

"You said Oregano needs to eat. Well all horses like apples." She smiled and opened the front door to the deli and walked over to Oregano and held the apple out to the horse.

"Uh, Betty, I don't think that's a good idea." Gio warned her.

"Why?" Betty inquired.

"Well, Oregano has a fear of apples." Gio responded as Betty began to laugh. "That's funny because…?"

"Gio, all horses like apples…see?" she shoved the apple in the horses's face and immediately Oregano began to whinny and back away. "Ok, maybe I was wrong. Well, if he doesn't like apples, what does he like?" Betty didn't even need to wait for Gio, he was ready with a sandwich in hand.

"Whatever, I doubt whether Oregano really likes…" she stopped dead in her sentence as she watched the horse hungrily eat the sandwich. "You have the strangest horse I have ever met." She smiled and brushed the neck of the horse with her hand.

"Oregano had an apple accident. My sister accidently fed him a fake apple when she was younger. Ever since then Oregano's had an irrational fear of apples. He does like avocado and carrot sandwiches." Gio informed her as he continued to feed the horse. He noticed Betty laugh. "What?"

"It's just…well…you have the strangest horse I have ever met. Avocado and carrot sandwich?" Betty continued to grin.

"Hey, I make what customers want. If Oregano wants an avocado and carrot sandwich, then he gets it." Gio grinned as the horse happily finished the sandwich. "Well we need to get going if we're going to make our next adventure." Gio helped Betty into the carriage and locked the deli up before driving the carriage.

"So where to next?" Betty asked excitedly. There was something about Gio's company that she enjoyed. He had the ability to take her by surprise.

"Patience. I thought I would take you to my all time favorite place." He smiled to himself, as if he were enjoying some kind of private joke.

"I'm not going to A Whole Lot of Fun! I don't do strip joints." Betty's heart skipped a beat as she looked over at Gio's serious face. "You can't be serious? Well, I want off then! There are better ways for me to spend my birthday." She said defiantly.

"Sit!" he instructed her, without taking his eyes off the road. Oregano began to make a strange noise. "What's wrong up there Oregano?" Gio asked the horse.

Oregano continued to make his noises and he became restless and made a sharp turn unexpectedly. Sudden the carriage wheel made a loud cracking sound and became unbalanced. Betty's weight was shifted onto Gio. Gio couldn't help but smile. "Well if that's what you wanted the whole time, you should have just asked." Immediately Betty let go of Gio and scooted away. Gio hopped off to take a look at the damage. Betty stood up to take a look.

"Sit! It's unbalanced and I don't want anything else to happen to the carriage." Gio pointed at Betty and she eventually sat. She stared up at Oregano who stood there quietly. She noticed a rat slinking around the carriage. "Uh, Gio…I see what spooked Oregano." She pointed at the rat, and it squeaked and ran off.

"That fixes our problem, how?" Gio asked sarcastically. "I don't think we'll be able to fix this by ourselves. Let's just leave it here and get to our next place. I don't want to miss out on a minute of the show." He helped Betty out of the carriage and unleashed Oregano. "He'll have to come with us." Gio took the reins and beckoned Betty to follow.

"Now when you say show…" Betty tried to figure out where they were going, but Gio ignored her. "I don't think they let horses into places like that…" Betty commented, hoping Gio would give away their next location. He just shook his head. After several moments, Betty realized they had wandered into Central Park. "What are we doing here?" she whispered into Gio's ear.

"We're here." He pointed to a large screen. "Outdoor movie. Sorry it's kind of cold, but the movie is worth it."

"How did you manage all of this?" Betty asked in awe as she sat down in the grass.

"Eh, well I have connections." Gio smiled and sat down next to Betty. "This movie is one of my all time favorites. Call me crazy, but there's something about this movie." He grinned and sat in silence.

"What's the movie?" Betty asked, but before Gio could answer, she saw that the screen was now showing the credits and played the Tara theme. "Gone with the Wind? Really, this is one of your favorite movies?" Betty looked at him in shock.

"Shh…you're ruining it. Even though they're only credits." He smiled. "I can relate really well to one of the characters. You have no idea how hard it is to pine for someone you love and watch her go after the wrong kind of guy." Gio said pensively. Betty looked at him curiously, but thought nothing of it. "To your surprise, I do like old movies too. It's also to my benefit that this is the longest movie in history." Gio winked at Betty an inched closer, but Betty didn't notice.

Once the movie was over, Betty was surprised that she wasn't even tired yet. It was close to midnight and she looked over at Gio who had fallen asleep before Clarke Gable spoke his famous line at the end of the movie. Betty smiled as she watched him snooze peacefully. She got up and went to visit Oregano. After a few moments, Gio joined her.

"Gio, for that being your favorite movie, you didn't last long." She smiled and played with Oregano's mane.

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." He grinned and took Oregano's reins.

"I've had a lot of fun tonight. You can be really surprising and unexpecting sometimes." She commented as they led Oregano back to the broken carriage.

"So have you done any more writing?" Gio asked. "Well, since the whole Phil Roth article."

"No, I've been trying to spend as much time with Henry as I can. We only have a few months left. It's not that he doesn't approve of writing, he just feels that it's a little irrelevant to what's going on." Betty wondered why she felt comfortable talking to Gio.

"Irrelevant? It's something you enjoy doing though. What do you want to write about?" Gio was concentrating hard on his thoughts as he waited for Betty to respond.

"Well, I don't know really. I guess I could write about how much I'll miss Henry." Betty suggested.

"Lots of great writers write about what they can't express verbally. They write about their desires and wants. That's the passion of writing and why I enjoy reading. After reading Harry Potter, I could really sense that she was passionate about what she wrote about." Gio continued to guide Betty back to the carriage.

"I would have never taken you for the type that would read Harry Potter. Isn't it a little elementary for you?" Betty asked curiously.

"Good writers are good writers Betty, no matter the age level they write for or the genre. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." Gio fell into a moment of silence.

"Francis Bacon said that." Said Betty, feeling astonished that Gio was spitting out quotes.

"You never considered me to be a reader, did you?" he grinned. "It's alright. Like you said, I'm full of surprises." Betty smiled and saw that they were back at the carriage.

"I…I really need to be getting home Gio." Betty informed him as she began to look around for a cab.

"Can I give you a ride back? I have to take care of the carriage, but after that…" Gio suggested.

"No, really I'll be fine just ordering a cab." She smiled thoughtfully at Gio and held up her hand for a taxi. Lucky for her, they were around the safer part of New York.

"Sorry about the whole carriage thing. I know it's not exactly how you expected a carriage ride to be, but I hope you enjoyed it a little." He watched her lighten up, which made him smile in return.

"No one's ever done something like this for me." She saw a cab stop in front of her. 'Gio, how did you know that I wanted the Phillip Roth book?"

"Educated guess. We'll really…when I slept in your room that night. I looked at your book collection. Thought you could use something good to read." He grinned and held the cab door open for her. "Are you sure you'll be alright?" he asked. Betty looked from him and then over at Oregano, who was happily chewing on hay.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She sighed and was about to close the door, but Gio stopped her.

"What were you going to tell me? You said that before the night was over, there was something you needed to tell me." Gio gave her a puzzled look.

"It's not important anymore." She frowned. "See you." She said sadly as she closed the door and the cab drove off.

Betty entered the house quietly, and shut the door with extra caution. As she was about to wander up the stairs, Hilda stopped her.

"Details, tell me now!" she pointed to an empty living room.

"Hilda, I'm really tired. Tomorrow though." Betty yawned.

"Henry's coming over tomorrow by the way. He's coming to celebrate your birthday." Hilda informed her and walked off.

Betty sighed as she sat on her bed. It felt good to be back in her room. She looked around and then felt in her pocket, taking out Gio's slip of paper telling her where to meet him. She had to admit that this night was something she didn't expect Gio to be able to pull off. She fell asleep, worrying about how she would explain to Henry that she just couldn't stay away from Gio anymore.


	4. Gio's Pickle

_FYI: The title was much more fun to come up with than the actual chapter!;-) I hope you all enjoy! This takes place after 24 Candles and sorry that my last few chapters didn't quite go well with the promo vids/pictures!_

Betty eyed the beautiful pink flowers that Henry had given her. They complimented the arrangement of her desk quite nicely. She had to admit that Henry had a way of making things up to her. After uttering a million apologies about her birthday, she gave into Henry. There was just something about his smile and the way that he knew to apologize when she was upset with him. Betty had a few minutes to herself as Daniel was out to lunch with Renee and everyone else was carrying on with their own business. She decided to spend her time on the one website that would make anyone procrastinate, Facebook. She knew that her co-workers would make fun of her for it, but she didn't care.

"Let's see who's up to what." She said to herself as she looked around the site. She was able to connect with lots of friends. One in particular was Rachel Lewis, who was a college friend of hers. To her surprise, she had a message waiting for her.

"Who could be sending me a message…" she said happily to herself. As she clicked the inbox, to her surprise there was a message from Giovanni Rossi. "What's he doing on Facebook.?" She asked herself. She looked around to make sure no one was looking before reading the message:

_Betty, _

_I hope you're not lurking around on that disgusting site with the kittens and ducks. There are more grown up sites out there you know.;-) Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed our night together the other night. We should do it again sometime. By the way, you should try . –Gio_

Betty couldn't help but smile to herself. For a minute she wondered how Gio found her, but then she realized, if someone wants to find you bad enough, they can find you. Betty decided to go to the website that Gio suggested.

"I didn't know he was that political." She said as she typed in the URL. To her dismay, it was nothing to do with government. "Now, I know him even better." She mumbled to herself as she checked phone messages. Suddenly, the phone rang.

"Daniel Meade's office, this is Betty Suarez." She answered cheerfully.

"You…have…a…visitor." Amanda said over the receiver, really slowly. "He brings a sandwich for you!" Amanda finished and hung up quickly.

Immediately Betty got excited. She knew that Gio had come to her rescue with a chicken salad sandwich. Even though she told herself that she didn't need to see Gio anymore, she couldn't contain herself. Ever since the carriage ride and outdoor movie, her promise to Henry upset her. She never realized that Gio could be such a good friend to her and it pained her to lie to Henry yesterday about what she actually did on her birthday.

"Hey, Hey!" she announced her entrance loudly for Gio who would be at the front desk before she turned the corner. "You know the way I like my chicken salad….Henry?!" her gleeful announcement was cut short at the site of Henry.

"Betty, hi!" Henry did his normal wave for Betty, which made her cringe, and handed her a brown paper bag. "I made this sandwich all by myself. Aren't you proud? I made it just the way you like it too." He kissed her and then frowned. "Is everything alright? I thought you would be happier."

"I'm fine Henry, just a little tired." She sighed. "Thanks for the sandwich." She opened the bag and took out the sandwich. It didn't look nearly as tasty as Gio's would have been.

"Betty, I'm glad that you've stayed away from Gio. You just look so much happier. The way you came in all excited about me bringing you a sandwich made me realize that Gio wasn't good for you to hang around." He smiled and looked at his watch. "Oh, I have to get back to the accounting floor. I love you, Betty." He took her hand and kissed it before walking away.

"I wish I had some lunch to eat." Amanda sighed. "Because I would have had something to throw up." She sneered before looking through a magazine. "Oh and this was dropped off for you." She handed Betty a bag that had Gio's pickle emblem on it. "The sandwich guy dropped this off. Why he left it with me, I have no idea. That's a very happy pickle by the way." She pointed at the emblem and went on to ignoring Betty.

"That's Gio's pickle for ya!" Betty smiled and suddenly realized how dirty that sounded.

"So I see that you've moved onto talking about Gio's pickle." Betty turned around in horror with embarrassment to see Daniel standing there grinning.

"No…it's the emblem from his deli. It's always smiling…see." She pointed to the happy pickle.

"Right…so how was your birthday?" Daniel asked as he began to walk to his office. Betty followed him.

"Great! Henry was the best." Betty faked a smile.

"It was so great that you aren't able to give me any details?" Daniel raised his eyebrow with a look of skepticism.

"There are just details that I choose to leave out, Daniel. Anyway, what's on the agenda for the rest of the day?" Betty pulled out a small notepad from her pocket along with a pen.

"I need for you to find me a caterer. Mom is about to launch HotFlash and she asked me to find a suitable caterer. I thought since you like food, you might have a place in mind with good service." Daniel smiled.

"Oh…you think….I like food?" Betty stammered, taking his comment the wrong way.

"No…I didn't mean it like that, Betty. Since your father is a good cook and you've grown up around good food, I thought you would have good input. Plus, you order from that Gio guy…you talk to him a lot." Daniel leaned back in his chair and waited for Betty's response.

"I...I am trying to distance myself from Gio. Besides, I don't talk to him that often." She said defensively.

"That would explain the pickle bag in your hand." Daniel pointed at the bag.

"Oh this? I ordered it for you. See. Here." She gave the bag to Daniel. She wished that she could take it back. She loved the way that Gio made his chicken salad sandwiches. Suddenly, she thought of him and envisioned him slicing the tomatoes to perfection. Adding the right touch of mayonnaise. Placing the lettuce on the sandwich in the precise way she wanted it. Then she saw the way that Gio delicately placed the pickle into a baggie with care.

"Uh, Betty, you're doing the daydreaming zoning thing again…all I said was thanks for the sandwich." Daniel was suddenly standing right beside her with the bag from Gio's deli.

"Oh, you're welcome." She blushed and turned to leave.

"Betty, I made this just the way you had it Saturday night. Oregano can't stop talking about you. I think he may have a crush on you. Another outdoor movie perhaps?" Betty looked over to see Daniel reading a note that Gio had enclosed in the bag.

"I don't know what he's talking about." She said defiantly.

"Ah ha! You did see sandwich guy recently, didn't you?" Daniel gave that look he normally gave when he caught on to something. "You told me that you haven't seen him in a while! I knew something was up!"

"It was nothing, Daniel. We went on a carriage ride and to an outdoor movie. End of story." Betty sighed. "Anyway, I'll take my sandwich back and start to find a caterer." She snatched the sandwich out of Daniel's hand just as it was about to go into his mouth.

Betty sat down at her desk and looked at the flowers once more. She frowned because they were beginning to wilt. It had only been a few hours since she had last looked at the flowers. Suddenly, she realized that she hadn't watered the flowers. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten to take care of something that Henry had given her. The taste of Gio's sandwich made her smile though. She had placed his note into a drawer in her desk and sat in silence, enjoying every last bite of the sandwich. She couldn't help but smile at the waving pickle on Gio's deli bag.

Hours of searching for caterers produced little to no hope. She had managed to contact three bitter caterers that Daniel had managed to sleep with and one that had kicked the bucket three years ago, but their family forgot to delete the business number from the phone book.

"Any luck with a caterer?" Henry had come up behind Betty and squeezed her shoulders.

"No, nothing." She smiled as she turned her chair around to face Henry. "I just wish that I knew another solution." She stood up so Henry could hold her. As she was in Henry's arms, she suddenly thought of someone who wouldn't mind catering. "Wait, maybe my dad could do it." She quickly grabbed her purse, leaving Henry in the office, looking flabbergasted.

"Dad!" Betty said breathlessly as she raced into the house. "Dad, I need your help!" Ignacio ran into the living room with a look of fear on his face.

"What's wrong? Is everything alright, mija?" his face showed nothing but fear.

"I'm fine! We need a caterer for Claire Meade's new magazine launch. Would you do it?" Betty asked as she slowly caught her breath.

"Dios Mio Betty! I thought someone had attacked you or something." Ignacio walked Betty over to the couch to sit down. "Now, you want me to cater for a magazine launch? Betty, I'm happy you've thought of me for this, but I'm not as young as I used to be." He admitted.

"Please! I know you can do it. Just think of all of the doors that could open for you if you cater." Betty pleaded.

"Betty, I really appreciate it, but I don't think I can. I just can't provide good enough service for a lot of people." Ignacio explained. Betty's face fell as Hilda entered.

"Papi, don't be so hard on yourself. Those rich folks need a taste of Suarez food. I know someone with a flare for cooking that could help." Hilda grinned.

"Hilda, no offense but last time you cooked, you managed to burn our entire meal of macaroni and cheese." Betty said, with a worried expression on her face.

"I do hair, not food. I wasn't talking about me." She gave Betty a meaningful look before continuing with her thoughts. "I meant Gio. You like him, don't you Papi?" Hilda asked as she looked from Betty to Ignacio.

"Well…he is pretty good with food." Ignacio took one look at Betty. "What do you think? Do you think he'd be willing to do it?"

"I…I don't know. Gio and I shouldn't see much of one another…considering the circumstances." Betty said nervously.

"Well then, I'm out. Sorry Betty, but I could use all the help I can get from someone who knows what they're doing with food." Ignacio sighed, sorry that he was about to let down his own daughter.

"Alright! I'll ask him! I'm doing this for Daniel though…and Daniel only." She informed them before leaving to head back to the office. As she made her way to the office, she noticed that Gio's deli didn't have a lot of people in it, so she thought she would stop by.

"Hello?" she called as she entered.

"Oh it's you." Antonella greeted her unhappily.

"Hi, Antonella. You sound upset." Betty smiled at Antonella, who didn't look pleased to be at the deli.

"My adorable brother got me in trouble last night with ma and she is making me clean the deli for a week as punishment." She frowned. "He's in the back by the way." She pointed to the door and started wiping tables.

"Gio?" Betty called. The back area was dark and hard to really find anyone. "Gio, it would be more helpful if you had lights on." Betty tried to find a source of light and suddenly tripped over something on the floor.

"Oww…" she groaned as the thing on the floor groaned in pain too.

"Betty, what are you doing here?" Gio said. She winced in the dark to see that the thing she tripped over was actually Gio.

"Before I answer that, what are you doing on the floor and why are the lights out?" she rubbed her head as Gio helped her out and led her to the front of the deli.

"Well the lights in the back went out for some unknown reason and I was on the floor listening to my iPod and trying to figure out how to fix the problem. Then, I get clobbered over the back by you." Gio managed a grin after a few seconds.

"Oh, right." Betty smiled back at him. For a moment, they stared at one another. Antonella had gone outside to sweep the sidewalk. Gio and Betty's eye contact was broken by a portly man who came from the back.

"Rata!" the portly man simply said and beckoned Gio to follow.

"Right and I would understand what the hell that means because…?" Gio said aloud as Betty followed.

"It means 'rat' in Spanish." She informed Gio, as they continued to follow the man in the dark.

"So you're useful after all, Betty. I should have you around all the time. I could always use a translator." He said with a wink, that Betty didn't see. "So can you talk to him for me?" he asked.

"Sure." Betty said as she tapped the man on the shoulder. "¿Perdone, qué está equivocado con las luces? (Excuse me, what is wrong with the lights?)" she quickly said in Spanish. The portly man turned to Betty.

Soy tan feliz que usted habla español. Este tipo me ha estado molestando hablando lentamente a mí en inglés. (I am so happy that you speak Spanish. This guy has been annoying me by speaking slowly to me in English)" the portly man laughed and continued. "Qué él no sabe es que hablo en secreto ingles. (What he doesn't know is that I secretly speak English)." The man chuckled and Betty couldn't help but laugh as well.

"Hey, why do I get the feeling you are not talking about the lights?" Gio asked defensively.

"He actually speaks English, Gio. He's been messing with you all this time." Betty continued to giggle.

"Your problem, sir is that a rat bit through some of your electrical wiring. He was inside of your walls and gnawed right through some of the wiring." The man informed Gio. "I know this is bad for a restaurant owner. It is easily fixed. You need rat traps to be placed into the walls. Lucky for you, we do those services." The man gave Gio his card and left.

"So a rat, huh?" Betty smiled as she sat at one of the tables in the front.

"I can't believe that I have rat problems. Good thing there aren't any customers here right now." Gio managed a smile as he looked at Betty. "So, what brings you here anyway?"

"Oh, that, right. Look, I need to ask a favor of you. See, Daniel needs a caterer and so I had trouble finding one. I asked my dad, but he will need some help. Are you interested?" Betty gave him a look that he couldn't resist.

"Well, I guess I could help. What's in it for me?" he winked.

"The satisfaction of knowing that you've helped me." She smiled and got up to leave. "I'll be in contact. See you later." With that, she was out of his deli once again.

Gio knew that seeing Betty for another time would be payment enough for him to cater whatever event Daniel Meade had in mind.


	5. A Shower of Flour

Betty had grown so busy, that she had forgotten to pay any attention to Gato. The cat was fed and clothed, much to the cat's dismay, by Justin. An angry Gato dug his claws into Betty's legs, waking her up.

"Gato, you are the oddest cat I've ever had. Then again, I haven't been the nicest owner to you lately." She pulled the cat into a tight grip hug and let him go. "I've been busy juggling my dad and Gio as the caterers for Claire Meade's magazine launch. Pobrecito!" the cat slowly began to purr and Betty knew she was forgiven.

"Gio's going to be here soon, so there's a lot to do." Betty hopped out of bed, wondering where her excitement suddenly came from. "Why am I talking to my cat?" she asked herself aloud as Gato played under the sheets on her bed.

"Morning Betty, you look cheerful today!" Ignacio greeted his daughter with a kiss on the forehead as she bounced down the stairs.

"Just nervous about the whole catering thing. You and Gio are doing a great job though." Betty sat down at the breakfast table and poured a glass of orange juice.

"Aunt Betty, look what I made for Gato last night?!" Justin came in and had a pink sparkled small sweater. "You think he'll like it?"

"Um…yeah…he's a cat after all." Betty smiled encouragingly as Justin ran off to find Gato. A moment later, Gato came bolting down the stairs and ran through the kitchen in fear as Justin chased him with a sweater.

"So I hope Gio is going to come over with one of those good ham sandwiches. I swear every time he brings those sandwiches over since he's been working with Papi, I've managed to stop my diet five times!" Hilda said as she sat down next to Betty.

"I can't resist the chicken salad sandwiches…" Betty smiled as she thought of the way Gio made her sandwich.

"So, what are you up to today Betty?" Hilda gave her sister a meaningful look as she tore a piece of bread in her hands and placed a piece into her mouth.

"Supervising. I need to make sure that everything is going alright with the caterer." Betty shrugged.

"Or…you're here to keep an eye on Gio." Hilda smiled and winked.

"Ewww…No. I'm not at all." Betty answered a little too quickly. As soon as she spoke, the doorbell rang and Betty sprang from her seat. "Must be Gio. Better answer the door." Betty didn't even look to her sister for a response.

Betty opened the door, but frowned. "Henry." She stood with the door open for a few seconds as Henry waved her normal nerdy wave.

"Hi, Betty. Surprised to see me?" He asked as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Well, I didn't know you were going to stop by, that's all." She responded back to him nervously and let him inside.

"Everything alright? I didn't come at a bad time, did I?" Henry looked around at all the food Ignacio was making. "Mmm…I see your dad has made some really good food. Hogging all the sweet delicatessens, my preciousssss?" Henry smiled and chuckled at his Lord of the Rings joke. Betty feigned a laugh.

Hilda suddenly walked in. "Ay, it's only Henry. I needed help with my sink again and I thought he was…" Hilda was about to say 'Gio', but Betty was faster.

"Uncle…" she looked around the room for a clue to make up a name. "…Burro." Her eyes fell on a donkey magnet.

"Uncle Burro….? Oh yes, Uncle Burro." Hilda caught on faster than Betty imagined she would. Suddenly, a knock at the door told Betty that Gio was finally here.

"Quick, Henry! Let me take you upstairs…..you see Uncle Burro doesn't like new people." Betty grabbed Henry by the arm and dragged him upstairs.

"I'm nice though. Any uncle of yours in an uncle of mine!" Henry said cheerfully. Betty covered his mouth quickly to prevent him from speaking anymore.

"Shh!...quick….get in the closet." She shoved herself into the closet with Henry and they stood in darkness.

"Is this some kind of…game…your family plays when introducing new people. This must be a cultural thing." Henry grinned. "Because I kind of like it." He held Betty tightly, but Betty pushed him, a little too hardly, into a pile of stuffed animals.

"Now, stay here until I come back. It's very important or you'll lose the game!" Betty explained as she opened the door.

"Betty, I don't really understand." Henry stood up and began to wander out of the closet.

"No!" Betty pushed him back into the closet. "Please, do this for me. I'll come back and then we can have some alone time." Betty smiled and leaned in to kiss him but heard footsteps and someone calling for her and so once again she pushed Henry into the pile of stuffed animals and closed the door.

"Yeah…I'm here." She bolted downstairs to see a smiling Gio.

"I see you're as excited as ever to see me. Looks like your heart is even racing." Gio commented on Betty's shortness of breath and followed Betty into the kitchen.

"Shut up, Gio. Dad's been working really hard already, but he could use your help." Betty showed Gio the progress that had been made and turned to leave.

"Wait…where do you think you're going, mjia?" Ignacio came into the room. He looked exhausted. "I need a break to take a long siesta, so I thought you could help Gio." He smiled as Betty slowly agreed with a nod and went upstairs.

Betty rolled her eyes and turned to Gio, who looked happy to be working with her. "So are you ready to get down and dirty, Betty?" Gio winked and threw an apron at Betty and began to get to work.

"What are you making?" Betty asked curiously as Gio looked through the cabinet for random ingredients.

"Rossi family recipes…shh don't tell. They're secret." Gio was standing closer to Betty than she wanted, and instinctively, she backed away. "You don't have olive oil! All good recipes use olive oil." Gio shook his head. "This won't do. You and I will have to go out!" Gio grinned. "…For olive oil." He concluded as Betty frowned.

Betty hesitated at the door for a moment and thought of Henry, but decided they wouldn't be gone too long and followed Gio with a sigh.

"You don't seem too happy to be spending quality time with me. Is it something I said? Usually, you've been happy around me…but today…something's up." Gio noted as he drove to the nearest grocery store.

"Nothing. Daniel just has a lot for me to do right now." Betty lied as she looked out of the window.

"Ah ha! That's a lie. You do that looking out of the window thing when you tell a lie. I've been around you far too long and now I can tell when you're lying." Gio smiled slyly. "Well at least the lie involves being with me…so that makes me happy." They drove in silence for a moment before Gio continued the conversation. "So, I'm glad that Eggy has been so cool about us hanging out." Gio casually mentioned.

"Yeah, that's my Henry." Betty said unenthusiastically.

Thirty minutes later, Betty found herself back in the kitchen with Gio. They had managed to get the olive oil and get into a heated debate about 90's pop culture.

"I'm telling you…Wishbone's version of Pride and Prejudice was the best!" Betty laughed as she playfully hit Gio in the chest.

"The book includes all the hairy details…no pun intended." Gio smirked and reached over Betty to grab the flour. He stopped for a moment to take in the scent of her hair. Gato suddenly rubbed against Gio's leg and purred. Taken by surprise, Gio's grip of the flour was lost and the sack of flour went all over the floor and Betty.

"Ah, Betty, now I have to compliment you by saying you are now whiter than Egg Salad." Gio began to laugh. Betty started to walk away, keeping a smile to herself. Suddenly she turned around and picked up the remaining flour in the sack.

"Too bad in my family, we get revenge!" She smirked and threw the bag at Gio. "Oh, Gio…you look like you've just seen a ghost because you're so white!" Gio grinned and went to chase Betty, but slipped in the flour. Feeling bad, Betty held out her hand to help Gio up, but Gio had other plans.

"After you, Mode Girl." He said as he pulled her down onto the flour coated floor.

"So this must be Uncle Burro." A disappointed Henry said from the doorway. Betty immediately stood up and began to walk over to Henry with a look of worry on her face.

"It's not what it looks like Henry." Betty began to explain. Henry gave her a look of disgust.

"Yeah, maybe I'm imaging things, but what it looks like to me is that you went behind my back and saw him anyway!" Henry was now furious.

"Woa, it's alright Henry. I was just…" Gio tried to defend Betty, but Henry blasted him.

"Back off sandwich boy, this has nothing to do with you!" Henry huffed loudly. "Betty, you promised to me that you would stop seeing Gio. How long has all of this been going on?" he asked angrily. Betty shook her head, not wanting to answer because she was embarrassed. "HOW LONG?" Henry repeated, but he had now escalated to shouting.

"Two weeks, Henry. I swear though…nothing has happened." Betty felt tears forming in her eyes as Henry shook his head and backed away. 'Henry, wait…please let me explain." Henry didn't even look at Betty before walking out the front door. Betty ran to follow him. "Henry…please…" She pleaded for him to come back, but he kept walking. Sadly, Betty made her way back into the house.

Betty took one look at the kitchen and then at herself in the hallway mirror. She had flour everywhere on her and the flour was everywhere in the kitchen. Suddenly, her eyes met with Gio's. Surprisingly, he had a look of disappointment in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly, still shaken up from her argument with Henry. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Did you promise Henry that you wouldn't see me anymore?" Gio asked coldly. Betty nodded. "Is that the real reason you hadn't seen me for about two months?" Betty nodded. "So you basically thought, 'Hey…I need to use Gio because my boyfriend's baby's mama is in town for my birthday and I am oh so bummed, maybe I'll go see Gio and get his hopes up!'. To top it all off, you then go on to use me to be a caterer." Gio sighed angrily and Betty nodded.

"Gio, I didn't want you to find out this way." She said sadly. She watched as Gio grabbed his jacket. "Where….where are you going?"

"Oh, I'm going now to get used by my next door neighbor…since I'm so good at it." Gio made his way to the doorway and then turned to Betty. "Come see me when you've matured a little. I never expected all of this Junior High drama from you. You're 24 Betty, so it's time to start acting like it. Henry's blinded you for too long." Gio didn't smile as he lectured Betty and shook his head in disbelief and left.

Betty stood alone at the door for a few moments, before gloomily making her way into the kitchen to clean up. Hilda suddenly appeared by her side.

"Betty, what just happened? Justin and I went shopping while you and Gio went for olive oil and we came back to Gio storming out. What happened to Henry?" Hilda looked into her sister's face for expression, but all Betty could do was cry. "It's alright, Betty. It's alright to cry sometimes."

Betty enjoyed these few minutes of being comforted by her sister. Hilda knew a thing or two about heartbreak. Betty sniffled as she turned to watch Gato pawing at the flour playfully. Normally, a kitten making pictures in flour would amuse her, but her heart was broken by two people.


	6. Love's Labor's Lost

Betty brought the dark cloud looming over her to work the following Monday. Henry refused to return any of her phone calls and Gio wasn't exactly welcoming her with any open arms. Betty walked into Mode, with a gloomy expression on her face. She sat at her desk unenthusiastically and set straight to work. The flowers Henry had given her had completely died and Betty threw them violently in the trash. She took a look at the picture of her and Henry, but placed it face down.

"I can't look at you right now." She said sadly to the picture. Suddenly, Daniel appeared by her side with a compassionate smile on his face.

"Betty…I heard about what happened this weekend. Do you need a day off?" Daniel suggested hopefully. Betty shook her head.

"I'm fine Daniel. It's good for me to just get back to the normal routine." Betty paused and sighed. "Alright, I've been meaning to tell you that the catering plans have fallen though. I know you must be so disappointed…" Betty tried to explain what happened, but Daniel stopped her.

"What are you talking about? Your pal Gio came through. As a matter of fact, you just missed him! He delivered 200 sandwiches. He was a lifesaver Betty. How many guys could pull off making 200 sandwiches in a night?" Daniel looked amazed and then looked at Betty's facial expressions.

"Did you and Gio have a fight too?" He asked as Betty nodded.

"Oh…yeah we did. It was kind of a catalyst of events this weekend. Um, so Gio stopped by though?" Betty was curious if Gio mentioned anything about her. "Did…he say anything about me?" Maybe she was a little too hopeful.

"Nope, he just said that he was doing me a favor and carried out as promised. He's a good guy, Betty. You've really got someone looking out for you." Daniel smiled and looked at this watch. "I've got a meeting with advertising, but I'll see you later this afternoon." He hugged her and walked away.

Betty sat at her desk quietly for a few moments and suddenly picked up her pink bunny. She smiled at its significance and suddenly, an idea hit her. She wasn't the type to sulk for long periods of time. She could make this up to Henry. She stood up and ran to the elevator. She grinned and wondered how she hadn't thought of this in the first place as she wound up on the accounting floor.

"Yo, here to break my Henrizzie's heart again?" Kenny greeted her with his normal mannerism.

"Go away Kenny. Where's Henry?" Betty looked over at Henry's cubicle, which was vacant. She smiled to see her pictures still up.

"I don't know vampire woman!" Kenny shrugged as Betty grabbed him by the collar. "Ok, he's in the little boy's room!" Betty let go, thanking Kenny quickly and wandered into the men's room, locking the door behind her.

"Henry, I know you're in here! Come out so we can talk!" Betty said loudly. The urinals were not occupied, but one stall was in use. Suddenly the toilet flushed, and out came a stout man. "Ok, you're not Henry…but Kenny said he's in the men's room…well he used the phrase 'little boy's room' but still…"

"Oh, that's a different bathroom. It's on the other side of the accounting floor." The man replied. Betty backed away and thanked him before unlocking the door and rushing out. She cautiously approached the other restroom and entered. To her surprise, it was literally little and only had a single toilet. Henry was indeed there, but the door wasn't locked. He turned at the sound of the door opening and had a look of shock on his face.

"Henry…don't start. Let me explain everything." Henry tried to leave, but Betty shut the door and locked. "You'll listen. I've forgiven you a million times and now it's your turn to forgive me." Henry sighed and sat on the floor.

"You have one minute to convince me." he said bitterly.

"I want to throw Charlie a baby shower. Look the baby is an important part of your life and because it's an important part of your life, naturally I want to be involved." She sat down next to Henry, who seemed halfway convinced. "I didn't tell you about Gio because it happened suddenly. You left and he didn't want me to be alone on my birthday. Well, then I desperately needed a caterer and Gio was the only one I knew that hadn't slept with Daniel. Henry, you need to be able to trust me around Gio. I love you…not Gio. I ran after you…not Gio." Betty took Henry's face in her hands and smiled. She was relieved to see a smile creep up on Henry's face.

"I understand Betty, honestly. I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you. I promise that I won't overact around Gio again…that was stupid of me." He kissed Betty quickly on the lips and stood up. He helped Betty to her feet and unlocked the door.

Betty spent the next few weeks organizing everything for Charlie's baby shower. Hilda reluctantly helped her get all of the decorations. Betty persuaded her family to throw the party at her house. After a few weeks, she looked at her accomplishments with the decorations and smiled.

"I think she'll like it Hilda." Betty said with a positive nod.

"Betty, I still don't see why you're throwing Charlie a baby shower." Hilda said as she fluffed by a bow. "Have you spoken to Gio since the flour incident?" Hilda was cautious to mention Gio's name.

"Why would I want to talk to him? I lied to Henry about Gio and look where it got me, Hilda. I'm just so glad that Henry forgave me. I'm just surprised that Gio hasn't mentioned me. He saw Daniel a few weeks ago. Did you know that he made 200 sandwiches for Daniel? Why…I have no idea!" Betty replied.

"He did it to save your ass you know." Hilda informed her sister. Betty couldn't deny that Gio probably did that to help her, but she was still annoyed with him for calling her immature.

"He called me immature! He's one to talk! He started the flour thing."

"You guys seemed to be having fun though…until all hell broke loose." Hilda smiled encouragingly. "Gio does have a point though Betty. He cares for you enough to back away so you can think about what's important to you." Hilda said truthfully. Betty stared at her sister for a moment before the phone rang.

"Hello? Henry…is….is everything…." She listened to a panic stricken Henry. "She's in labor! Well…I want to come down there…to…to be with you of course." There was a long pause. "I understand. Call me though. I lov….." Betty was sad to find that Henry had hung up on her, with the excitement over his baby. Betty turned to Hilda. "Charlie's gone into labor." She informed her sadly. She knew this was the moment she and Henry had been dreading for a while now.

"The best thing you can do is sit this whole thing out and wait. We've got some more Lost…" Hilda held up a DVD and Betty followed her into living room. With each Lost episode watched, Betty continued to look at her phone. There were no messages from Henry after 5 episodes. It was late and Betty found that she was growing tired.

"He'll call tomorrow…" Betty said hopefully to Hilda who sighed.

"I hope you're right, Betty." She smiled encouragingly and watched as her sister went up to bed. Hilda frowned at looked over at the sink that Gio installed months ago. She then went to her purse and pulled out a slip of paper and copied something down and left it on the kitchen table before going to bed herself.

The morning light stung Betty's eyes as she tried to open them. Her eyes were exhausted from a restless night of trying to sleep. Her thoughts were on Henry and the baby. She immediately sat up and checked her phone. She had a voicemail! Excitedly, she flipped the phone up and called her voicemail.

_Hi, Betty…this is Dr. Farkas. I just wanted to tell you that it's time to get your braces off. I know it's last minute, but if you're willing, we can squeeze you in this afternoon. Just stop by around 4 or so if it's convenient._

Of course it wasn't convenient! She'd be spending the day with Henry. Betty sighed sadly as Henry hadn't called her. He was probably busy seeing his new baby. Betty dressed into something comfortable and wandered downstairs. She sat down at the kitchen table, which had newspapers all over it.

"Morning, mija. Sleep well?" Her father handed her some breakfast and sat down across from her, taking the Living section.

"He didn't call." She said simply and began to eat her breakfast. Ignacio sighed and looked sadly at his daughter.

"Betty, he's just busy. He'll call." He said encouragingly.

Unfortunately, the hours went by and before Betty knew it, it was 3 in the afternoon. She ran her tongue over her braces. Finally, she devised a plan. She would go get her braces off and then go see Henry at his apartment.

"Going to get your braces off Aunt Betty?" Justin asked excitedly as he watched Betty leave the house. She nodded.

"I have to run an errand afterward, so don't wait up for me." She smiled and left.

It took little to no time for Betty to get her braces off. She ran her tongue over her teeth and it surprised her how smooth they were in comparison to the bumpy braces. She had forgotten what teeth felt like. She thanked Dr. Farkas and left. She couldn't help but smile. She was about to surprise Henry and hopefully he would notice her teeth didn't have braces on them. She found herself in front of his door and knocked. It was funny that no one answered. Surely they'd be back by now. She then noticed a slip of paper sticking out from under the door. Curiosity got the better of her and she picked it up. The world suddenly stopped for her.

_Goodbye, Betty _

"No…there has to be some type of mistake." She said aloud as she took the piece of paper with her and knocked on Henry's landlord's door. A scruffy man answered.

"Yeah?" He looked Betty up and down.

"Yes, hi…um I am inquiring about one of your tenants. Henry Grubstick." She smiled encouragingly at the landlord.

"Ah, the nerdy guy! He left with a cute red head and their new baby. He doesn't live here anymore." The landlord closed his door, once his duty was done,

Betty couldn't remember how she got home, but she managed it in one piece and found herself sitting at the kitchen table. Her family had gone out to a movie. Something on the floor caught her eye. It was paper that had an address on it. It was in Hilda's writing and all it said beside the address was:

_ This is where you belong tonight, Betty._

Betty looked around for more paper that might have fallen that would relate to this strange slip of paper with an address. Betty had nothing to do so she decided to find directions to the unknown place and take her sister's advice. Her family was probably waiting there to cheer her up. The thought made her smile as she followed the directions and stood in front of a building of apartments. She took a look at the apartment number and sighed. Surely, her family wasn't spending the night in an apartment. It wasn't even six yet. Betty stood in front of the door and hesitated before knocking.

"Hold on…" A muffled voice said. It was inaudible, but Betty remained firmly planted, feet on the ground. The door slowly opened and Betty was surprised to be standing in front of a shirtless Gio.

"Betty, what are you doing here?" Gio asked, clearly not expecting her at his apartment. He ran his finger across his teeth in recognition that Betty got her braces off. Betty couldn't answer, because she was gawking at his shirtless presence. She suddenly came back to earth and blushed.

"I…I don't really know." Betty looked at Gio. Gio was studying her and trying to figure out what she was doing and how she found out where he lived.

"Are you alright?" Gio looked genuinely concerned as he grabbed Betty by the arm and dragged her inside. Betty was still in too much of a shock to move.

"I don't know." She shook her head and helped herself to sitting down on the sofa. Gio left her for a moment and came back with a shirt on. Betty's thoughts suddenly became clearer.

"I know why I came!" She stood up. Gio's expression changed my shock to interest as he listened.

"I've come to kidnap you for a while. Grab your coat and give me your keys." She gave Gio a sly smile.

"What are you doing?" Gio asked as he obediently gave Betty everything she asked for.

"Something spontaneous…for me." She smiled and walked out of the apartment as Gio followed.

"Do you even know how to drive a van?" Gio raised his eyebrow in skepticism.

"No, but don't worry about that. I need this Gio. Trust me." She smiled and ran off to his van.

"I trust you." He said aloud to himself and met up with Betty. Something odd was going on with Betty, but he wouldn't let that spoil an evening out with the one woman he regretted letting go a few weeks ago.


	7. Betty the Squirrel Slayer

Betty had never driven a van before and as she turned to see Gio gripping the seat, she could tell that she wasn't the best driver of something so big.

"Betty, look I don't know if this is some quarter life crisis or something, but I don't deserve to be murdered." Gio straightened up as Betty regained control of her driving.

"It's fine. No quarter life crisis here. Betty Suarez is excellent!" Betty said with a hint of edge to her voice. Suddenly, the van bumped a few times.

"What the hell was that?" Gio asked as he rolled down the windows and looked out of the window. "I think you just murdered Squirrel Nutkin and his whole family back there." Gio informed her as he put his head back in the van.

"Oh well! Good thing there are a million more squirrels in the world." Betty didn't take her focus off the road, but her facial expression shows Gio that something was up.

"Wait, you're not sad that a family pack of squirrels got sacrificed by the tires on my van?" Gio was slightly surprised. "I would have thought you posted a fan fic about throwing a funeral for the squirrels on ." Gio chuckled.

"Yeah, well those stupid squirrels had it coming Gio! They were stupid enough to hop out in front of this van." Betty sighed. "I don't like that website anymore."

"Pull over." Gio said suddenly.

"No! We're not there yet." Betty said defiantly.

"PULL OVER!" Gio commanded her.

"No!" Betty replied and sped up a little.

"For the sake of Gato, pull the hell OVER!" Gio commanded once more.

"Fine, GIO!" Betty slammed on the brakes, pissing five drivers off in the process. "WHAT GIO?" she shouted.

"Woa, I may be Italian, but I'm not deaf." Gio waved his hands in defense.

"Don't be a smart ass. You're really annoying me right now!" Betty said hotly.

"Oh, and the Great Squirrel Massacre of 2008 happened because…?" Gio waited for Betty to respond.

Betty gulped. "Henry left. There, are you happy now." Betty pulled the van out of park, but kept her foot on the brake. "Well, time to go."

"Stop…Betty…so all this is in response to Henry? You kidnapped me because of Egg Salad going back to Tucson?" Gio tried to put all the facts together. Betty nodded.

"Let's switch places, Betty. I can take over from here." Gio motioned for Betty to put the van in park. Betty hesitated, but agreed. They decided to switch inside of the van. As Betty slid past Gio, she could swear that he chuckled and so she kicked him hard in the stomach with her elbow. "Remind me to thank you for that." Gio replied sarcastically.

"Always the gentleman, Gio. Just drive." Betty looked out of the window with a gloom expression.

"Where to miss?" Gio managed a Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic line out of his mouth.

"The stars." Betty responded back sarcastically and sighed. "Coney Island." Betty didn't say another word and Gio got the message to give her some time alone to think things over. Half an hour later, Betty found herself getting out of the van.

"Why Coney Island?" Gio asked as they walked along the pier together.

"My mother used to take Hilda and I here as kids. Whenever we were upset about something, she would take us to look at the water, ride on some of the rides, and eat hot dogs. It was tradition." Betty said sadly.

"You know, I've never been here. I have always known it was here, but this is the first time I've been here." Gio informed Betty. Betty gave him a quick look of surprise.

"What did you do as a kid?" Betty paused. "Wait, maybe I don't want to know the answer to this." She managed a smile.

"We did a lot of traveling, honestly. Antonella and I were always on the move. We've been to all 50 states and to Italy of course. There is nothing more important to my family than seeing the world." Gio sat down on a bench and Betty followed, sitting a bit farther away than Gio hoped.

"I haven't gotten to travel much. When I was with Walter, he never really wanted to move away from Queens. I've always wanted to see the world and travel. I want to go on a cruise in the Caribbean, explore Paris, and go see bull fighting in Madrid, and see Salsa done the real way." Betty sighed longingly.

"You're still young." Gio replied.

"Tea cups…" Betty said out of the blue. Gio gave her a quizzical look and Betty grabbed his arm and dragged him to a place he had no clue about.

"What the hell are you going on about now? I'm still pretty distraught over those squirrels…" Gio grinned.

"Oh, get over those stupid squirrels already and live, Gio!" Gio was surprised by Betty's new burst of energy.

"You are a strange girl, Betty." Gio sighed and continued to be dragged by Betty. Finally, they stopped in front of the swirling tea cups. Gio rolled his eyes.

"Spinning tea cups? How old are we again?" Gio asked sarcastically.

"Shut up and let's do it!" Betty didn't realize how dirty that sounded until Gio gave her a smirk.

"My place or yours?" he asked with a wink. Betty ignored him as she dragged him up the stairs and threw him into a tea cup and sat down across from him.

"I didn't realize you liked it rough." Gio laughed, but he had a slight edge to his voice.

"Wait, you're only apprehensive about this because you've never been in a spinning tea cup before!" Betty caught on faster than Gio wanted her too.

"…and? Not all of us went to Coney Island!" Gio looked around nervously as Betty began to spin the tea cup around.

"I think you should be banned from this place Betty…." Gio said loudly to her, thinking he might be sick if Betty spun the cup any faster.

"Egg Salad didn't mind how fast I spun the tea cup around." Betty responded.

"So all of this…this whole act of being spontaneous…is it acting out on your part because Henry ditched you then? It's like you're on the perfume again." Gio paused. "Wait…are you?" He managed to slide his body next to hers. "Nah…no perfume."

"So what if this is about Henry? I have every right to live now that he's gone." Betty watched Gio's facial expression as the tea cup stopped spinning. "Are you going to be alright?" She had a look of worry on her face.

"Fine, let's…let's do something else." Gio said as he got up quickly. Betty stood up and laughed as she fell right down, feeling incredibly dizzy.

"I need a buzz…and not one from a stupid tea cup." Gio informed Betty as he helped her up and they wandered dizzily down the stairs. A few moments later, Gio found a bottle of beer and brought it back and sat down next to Betty.

"You know, none of this is going to bring him back." Gio said. He couldn't believe he was trying to make Betty feel better all because Henry did something jerky and left her alone. As much as he wanted to seize the moment and take Betty in his arms and proclaim his undying love, this was not the moment. As much as he hoped Betty wanted to spend time with him, he knew she was only spending time with him as a response to Henry leaving.

"Gio, you didn't get me one." Betty whined and grabbed the beer out of his hand and chugged it to the last drop.

"Woa, I paid good money for that!" Gio said bitterly. "I didn't know spinning tea cups cause you to drink."

"No, it's your presence that does it. Can I have another?" Betty grinned at him. Gio couldn't resist the string of metal that met her smile. He got up and come back with two beers.

"I'm going to give this to you…but only because you asked so nicely." Gio grinned and handed her a beer. "You know this isn't a healthy way of getting over someone.

"What do you know…Mr. Phil Roth is my hero?" Betty rolled her eyes and took a swig of her beer. "MMM…this is good!" Betty continued to drink and before Gio knew it, Betty was grabbing his beer out of his hand.

"Hey! I was going to drink that!" Gio snapped and tried to grab his beer back, but Betty smacked his hand away.

"You know, I've seen this very thing happen in an episode of Buffy. There was something in the beer that made the college kids go crazy." Gio grinned.

"What?" Betty stopped drinking. "You watched Buffy? That was my all time favorite show….Henry was my Angel…" Betty said thoughtfully before she began to hiccup.

"And that would make me…?" Gio inquired.

"Spike." Betty laughed and finished her third bottle of beer.

"There's still hope then." Gio muttered.

"What?" Betty gave him a quizzical look.

"Nothing." Gio muttered.

"Hey…look….Buffy…Betty….we have a connection. Both of our names start with "B" and have 4 letters…" Betty stood up excitedly.

"Betty, maybe you should sit down. I think the three beers you had in about 10 minutes are starting to kick in." Gio stood up and grabbed Betty by the arm.

"I'm fine Gino….weeee" Betty began to wander off.

"It's Gio!" Gio said as he followed behind Betty, making sure she was safe.

"Whatever…you know…with Henry gone…I feel free!" Betty began to run and Gio ran to catch up with her. Gio could see it before Betty could.

"BETTY…WATCH OUT FOR THE…" Gio tried to warn her about the metal pole she was about to run into, but it was too late. Betty hit the pole and fell flat on the ground.

Gio ran over to Betty. "Betty….BETTY…..BETTY…Betty…Can you hear me?" He called to a motionless Betty…


	8. 24 Going on 13

Disclaimer: I already know that the press release for the episode that I am about to write for my own has been released and it will not follow what is actually going to happen in The Kids Are Alright

_Disclaimer: I already know that the press release for the episode that I am about to write for my own has been released and it will not follow what is actually going to happen in The Kids Are Alright. With that said…enjoy…_

Betty felt her legs and body begin to move way before she could open her eyes. She could feel the millions of people gathering around her. Her eyes were too heavy to open and her head was throbbing.

"Is…she alright?" a girl asked. From what Betty could gather, the voice belonged to someone young. Betty tried to open her eyes, but couldn't. Instead she groaned.

"I guess all it takes is getting smacked in the head from dodge ball and she's already thinking of me." A boy replied. He seemed rather smug and was probably around the same age as the girl. Betty suddenly felt the need to sit up. It took all of her strength and she could feel someone helping her. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

"Gio…? What happened?" Betty asked. Her eyes were halfway open, making the environment blurry.

"You're supposed to dodge the ball, Bettina." The same boy from earlier replied. Betty now opened her eyes and to her surprise she was staring in the face of a 13 year old boy with a leather jacket who was grinning at her. Betty looked around and found herself surrounded by 13 year olds.

"Where….where am I? Where'd Gio go?" Betty looked around in confusion.

"I'm right here. Man, you must really be out of it, Bettina." The boy replied.

"It's Betty. You're not Gio." Betty shook her head and wondered when Gio would give this joke up. "Alright, the joke's over…I need to get back to Mode anyway." Betty stood up, with the support of the Gio imposter. "Woa…I think I had one too many beers." To her surprise, the 13 year old audience looked at her in shock.

"Ok, I don't know what happened to you, Betty, but you've been out for a good five minutes. I didn't mean to hit you that hard in dodge ball…it just sort of slipped." The Gio imposter replied.

"Oh my God, did she just say she had to get back to Mode? She MUST have been dreaming." A smart mouthed girl replied. There was something familiar about the girl, but Betty couldn't put her finger on it.

"Can you walk?" The Gio imposter had a look of concern in his face. As Betty began to slowly walk around, she didn't take into account that she was shorter than normal. Suddenly a man with a whistle came up to her.

"Oy! Suarez! Let Rossi take you to the nurse." Betty assumed this man was the coach. She looked over to the boy by her side. The coach was referring to this boy as Rossi.

"I'm dreaming….oh boy…you're not Gio. The Gio I know owns a sandwich shop and is…is…well quite a bit older than you!" Betty stared into the boy's eyes and felt a sense of familiarity, but shook the thought away.

"Good one, Betty. Though…if you're going to make up what I'll be doing as an adult, I'd rather be a guy who owned a strip joint." He winked and started to guide Betty down the hall.

"Even as a little kid, you still manage to…" Betty rolled her eyes, but Gio stopped her.

"It's funny you call me a little kid….and that would make you…how old?" Gio looked her up and down. Finally Betty rolled her eyes.

"I'm 24…remember the whole night out we had to celebrate my birthday?" Betty glared at him, but felt slightly uncomfortable talking to a 13 year old this way.

"If you're going to lie about your age, I'd go with 15." Gio grinned and pushed Betty into the bathroom and followed her, making sure no one was in there. Betty looked at herself in the mirror and froze.

"No! I'm 24…this isn't happening. This is like the movie _13 Going on 30_ only with the opposite effect." Betty commented as she looked at her 13 year old self in the mirror.

"Never heard of that movie. New release?" Gio seemed amused by her.

"Well…it came out in 2004…so about 4 years old." Betty turned to face Gio, who looked completely confused.

"What hole did you crawl out of? I didn't hit you that hard. I don't know about you…but we're still trying to make sure we all survive through the Millenium." Gio sighed and followed a confused Betty out of the bathroom.

"It's 2008 and I'm supposed to be 24. You're Giovanni Rossi and you are the annoying sandwich guy that has been competing with Henry." Betty impatiently replied. She continued to follow Gio down the hall.

"Ah, yeah….you're talking about Grubdick…" Gio laughed and looked around to make sure no teachers were around. "He had to leave suddenly for some family emergency." Gio chuckled. "Wait, so let me get this straight…you think it's the year 2008 and you work at Mode….the fashion magazine? Wow." Gio nodded and raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah…that's about right." Betty replied.

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble Betty, but its 1998 and no one is guessing that we're going to make it to 2000…what with Y2K and everything." Gio smirked and opened the door to the nurse's office.

"Can I help you?" a woman asked. Gio quickly explained the situation and led Betty into a room and sat down in a chair.

"So Mr. Rossi tells me that you had a pretty nasty head injury in gym today. Do you remember exactly what happened before you woke up?" the nurse pulled out a legal pad to take notes.

"Yeah, I was at Coney Island with Gio. We were a little older….like by 10 years…and it was 2008." Betty saw the look of surprise and confusion on the nurse's face. "Look, I know it sounds ridiculous, but I swear that's what happened. Gio and I were there and…and…of course….no one believes me!" Betty frowned as she watched the skeptical look on the nurse's face.

"Well, Miss.Suarez, temporary amnesia happens sometimes. This just looks like a case of temporary amnesia. Mr. Rossi told me that before you were knocked out you guys were playing dodge ball in your gym class. You didn't dodge Mr. Rossi's ball and it hit you pretty hard. Miss. Suarez, I'm suggesting that you take a little time to adjust. I'm allowing Mr. Rossi to watch over you for awhile." The nurse smiled and left.

"So, tell me 2008…do I turn out to be sexy?" Gio asked with a grin.

"Yeah, you're a regular Ryan Reynolds." Betty replied sarcastically.

"Who's Ryan Reynolds? Is he a famous guy from your time?" Gio smirked and stood up and began to walk around. "So you really do believe you're from 2008 then, don't you." Betty nodded. "What does happen with Y2K?" Gio asked with a hint of interest in his voice.

"The whole world blows up and Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter takes over." Betty threw a curveball at Gio with another pop culture event he wouldn't know about.

"Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter…friends of yours?" Gio laughed. "I like this Betty better than the one that checked out in gym. You're different." Gio informed her.

"Well don't get your standards set too high…this Betty needs to get back to 2008. I have important business to take care of." Betty stood up and nearly fell over, but Gio caught her.

"Woa 2008…you need to rest." Gio suddenly had a look on his face like he had a good idea. "Follow me…" He took Betty by the hand and dragged her out of the office and down the hall.

"Where are we going?" Betty asked curiously.

"Lunch…." Gio looked Betty up and down. "Not that you need it…but this should be interesting." He grinned and led Betty into the lunchroom. He sat her down next to him and smiled at her. "I just need to be amused, so once everyone gets here…tell us about the future." Betty sat in silence for a moment until a blonde girl sat down across from them. She was the one who made the Mode comment.

"Oh….it's Betty…who thinks she works at Mode." The girl rolled her eyes and bit into an apple. "That's all the lunch I'm having today." Betty suddenly realized how she recognized the girl.

"Amanda!" she said suddenly and looked to the girl for a response.

"No, it's Britney Spears." Amanda rolled her eyes. "Of course it's me."

"You know Britney Spears has 2 kids and managed to shave her head." Betty informed Gio and Amanda.

"Yeah right, and I'm dating Lance Bass…only the hottest guy in N'Sync." Amanda said smugly.

"He's gay." Betty replied with a smile.

"Eww, whatever." Amanda had a nasty expression on her face and rolled her eyes and left.

"Do you normally sit with her?" Betty turned to Gio, who looked amused with Betty. "What? You've had that stupid expression on your face all day! I hate to tell you that the expression never changes." Betty replied and shrugged her shoulders.

Gio sighed. "Time for our next adventure…follow me." He grabbed Betty by the arm and they began to wander down the hall.

"How do you manage to be able to wander around at your own free will and never get in trouble?" Betty asked as she darted her eyes around for any sign of a teacher.

"It's because I have confidence. If you look sketchy, people will treat you like a sketchy person. Come on, don't you trust me?" Gio gave her a sly look as he looked into a dark room and motioned for Betty to follow.

"Well at least I know I'm not going to get expelled…because this isn't really happening in the first place." Betty said to herself and followed Gio into the dark room. "Gio?" Betty felt around in the dark and the lights behind her came on.

"I just thought you might like it better if we were alone in the dark…but the light works for the purpose." Gio replied as he walked away from the light switch.

"What purpose would that be?" Betty asked nervously. Gio smiled and walked toward her. Betty wondered what Gio was up to as he kept wandering closer and closer to her and finally he stopped.

"Onions." He simply replied and walked to the corner of the room. Betty followed curiously.

"All of this for some onions?" Betty raised her eyebrow.

"Shhh….you never know when to be secretive..." Gio looked up at her. "Please tell me you grow out of it."

"Shut up." Betty replied. She suddenly took notice of a cage that was next to Gio. Inside she saw a rabbit. "What are you going to do with it?" She asked.

"Just thought I would show Benjamin Bunny to Tiger." Gio replied sarcastically.

"Tiger?" Betty asked.

"My cat. You know….he's rather fond of bunnies." Gio smirked. "I'm kidding of course. Betty, where's your sense of humor?"

"Sorry, I left it in the future." Betty rolled her eyes. He was still incredibly annoying.

"You're funny…" Gio bit the bottom part of his lip as he thought for a moment and suddenly opened the cage and took the bunny out.

"You're…you're not really thinking of stealing the bunny...are you?" Betty couldn't believe that Gio was going to be part of a crime. "This isn't right Gio. If I would have known that we came in here to steal the school's property….I would never have…" Gio placed his finger to Betty's lips.

"Shh….2008, you'll get us caught! Stealing this bunny is going to prove something…." Gio took the bunny in his hands and shoved it into his jacket and zipped the jacket up. "Now, let's split." He motioned for Betty to follow, but she stood there. "Let's go! Now's our chance to do something daring. We'll never get caught."

"Except that there's a missing rabbit in a cage!" Betty sighed. "You're not the smartest 13 year old."

"Really, well I was under the impression that if you are the real age you say you are…which is like what, 24…like you say you are? Well, you sure don't act like it." Gio replied. Betty noticed the rabbit wiggling around in the jacket.

"You're stealing though! You don't have any remorse?" She looked to Gio.

Gio thought for a moment. "Nah!" he shook his head slowly and left the room. Not wanting to be left in the room, Betty quickly followed.

"I hope you know that if we get into trouble…I'm blaming you…I'm the one with the temporary amnesia…remember?" she hissed as they made their way through the front door of the school.

"Relax 2008, it will all work out." He smiled and motioned to their surroundings. "See?"

"What do you know about…" Betty paused and realized they were no longer in the school, but instead they were walking around the outskirts of a wooded area. "You're right….we…we didn't get caught!" Betty laughed. 'Wow! I've never been on the bad side. It's like I've gone to the Dark Side….in a Darth Vader way." Betty grew excited.

"Stop while you're still ahead." Gio suggested as he took the frightened bunny out of his jacket. "Now, what shall we do with you?" Gio asked the terrified bunny.

"You're not going to kill it, are you?" Betty asked worriedly.

"Wait, this whole time, you thought I was trying to kill Onions?" Gio looked amused. Betty was about to say something, but paused and watched as Gio bent down and let the rabbit go. The rabbit hopped around for a few moments, and then hopped happily into the woods. "The Biology teacher captured the rabbit to keep as a class pet. It doesn't belong in a cage." Gio replied as he looked off into the woods.

"That's pretty deep for a 13 year old." Betty replied as Gio turned to her and smiled.

"People automatically take one look at me and think I'm some bad ass kid. Yeah, I manage to give my mother a heart attack when I get discipline notes sent home, but it's for the best. I'm expressing myself. All of those people in there…in that school….are confined into a cage…just like Onions. I did Onions a favor. Onions needed his family, Betty." Gio sighed and turned to walk away.

"Wait…Gio…." Betty walked over to him. "This might be weird saying this….but trust me…in another 10 years…you'll understand…" He paused and sighed. "This is a part of you that I've never seen before. You're like the Jess guy." Betty wanted to continue, but saw the puzzled look on his face.

"Jess?" Gio asked.

"From Gilmore Girls….nevermind…it's a show that's a few years away from this time." Betty continued. "Anyway, it's like you want people to think you're this big bad guy…when really the things you do….well they mean something to people. How many 13 year olds would have the guts to go into a science lab and free a bunny." Betty smiled and felt herself begin to blush. "That's something that Egg Salad would have never done."

"Who?" Gio asked.

"Henry. You call him Egg Salad in the future because….we'll you're a sandwich guy and all." Betty informed him as he nodded.

"Right, Henry Grubdick. I like Grubdick better….it makes you blush 2008." Gio grinned and Betty felt her face turn a million degrees Fahrenheit. Betty stared at Gio for a moment, until she heard the bell ring in the distance.

"That's my cue to hit the car line before my Ma notices that I've skipped. See you tomorrow 2008." Gio replied as he backed away and then turned and left Betty standing by the wooded area.

Betty watched Gio leave and began to evaluate the events that were taking place. She knew that this was a reaction to getting knocked unconscious at Coney Island. She wasn't ready to go back and face the fact that Henry had left. "I think I'll stay in this dream or whatever it is a little longer." Betty replied to herself as she stood there alone. She couldn't help but smile. This was an experience of middle school that she actually enjoyed.


	9. Fun with Fate

Betty looked at her thirteen year old self in the mirror. There was something about the young version of Gio that appealed to her. He paid attention to her and she did things she never thought she would end up doing.

"Oh, I knew it smelled like taquitos in here." Teenage Amanda sneered as she entered the girl's restroom.

"I wish I could say that you grow out of this phase, but you don't." Betty replied as she finished washing her hands.

"Right, and I am the delusional one who believes I work at Mode. One day, I'll be working at Mode as an Editor in Chief's assistant." She smiled mockingly as she applied lipstick.

"I'm telling the truth." Betty didn't know what else to really say to convince Amanda that she somehow ended up in 1998 as a result of the Coney Island incident in 2008.

"Just for the record, in the future…water has calories." Betty smiled as Amanda had a look of shock on her face.

"Ok, so there's' nothing safe to eat or drink?" Amanda suddenly froze on the spot.

"Exactly, so you might as well stock up now." Betty smiled and left Amanda dumbfounded in the bathroom.

Betty wasn't even halfway down the hall when suddenly; she saw the young version of Gio leaning against one of the lockers.

"Hey there 2008, up for another adventure?" he winked and walked over to her.

"I thought you were being picked up by your mom." Betty replied.

"Ah, well I forgot that this is the day that I lie about Monopoly Club." He grinned and adjusted his leather jacket.

"Really…Monopoly Club? That's not a very convincing lie." Betty shrugged and noticed that she had Gio's interest.

"So can you give me a more convincing lie, 2008?" he smiled, definitely intrigued with her.

"Well…for starters, why the hell would you be in a Monopoly Club to begin with?" Betty raised her eyebrow.

"Come on! I don't look like a guy who would enjoy Monopoly Club?" Gio shrugged his shoulders and began to fiddle with a locker.

"What are you doing?" Betty asked suddenly.

"I'm bored…and until you agree on our next little adventure, I'll continue to open…" He paused to look at the name on the locker. "Ah, it's your locker Betty….you probably have pictures of that Grubdick guy." He grinned.

"It's Grubstick…honestly…I liked it better when you called him…" Betty paused. "Never mind." She grumbled.

Betty slumped into the corner of the hall where the lockers meet the wall and sat down. "Hey, nobody puts Betty in a corner." Gio said as he walked over to her and held his hand for her to take.

"You just mentioned Henry…" Betty replied without taking his hand. Gio sighed.

"Sorry…that was a jerky move on my part." He smiled with his hand still extended. "The day is still young though and Monopoly Club is over at 9 tonight."

"Seriously…9? Wow, you are horrible at lying" Betty replied as she took Gio's hand. "So where is our little adventure?" Betty asked curiously.

"Ah, I have finally piques your interest, princesa! There is so much to show you" Gio led the way out of the school as Betty followed with a little feeling of guilt.

"Ok, if you're telling the truth 2008, you and I are going to make a time capsule. We'll bury it right here….right where Onions got rescued." Gio grinned as he pulled out some paper.

"I don't think this is such a great idea…" Betty began to explain. "This is just a dream..so anything we do wouldn't really go into effect" Betty informed him.

"Betty…come on….you need to live." Gio thought for a moment and continued. "The funny thing is that I believe there is a reason you're having a dream about this. It could be fate that you're dreaming about this very spot and event. 2008, do me a favor, alright." Gio smiled.

Betty gave him a quizzical look, but nodded.

"Whenever you wake up from whatever dream this is, come back to this spot. If fate is the type of thing it's supposed to be, you never know what you'll find here." Gio said thoughtfully as he began to scribbles something down on a piece of paper.

"What are you writing?" Betty leaned over to see what Gio was writing, but he snatched the paper away from her.

"It's all a part of fate, 2008." He grinned and dug a small hole in the ground and placed the paper in the hole before burying it.

"Are you this pessimistic in the future?" Gio raised his eyebrow as he rubbed the dirt off his hands and onto his pants.

"Well…no…"Betty thought for a moment and realized something. "You know…I never realized it until you mentioned this…but I think I have a hurdle to overcome. I have a lot of family issues…"

"Quack" Gio replied with a grin.

"Don't start that up again! It annoyed me in the future and it still annoys me." Betty replied.

"Ah, I didn't realize…sorry…you were saying…?" Gio watched her with interest.

"Well I have a habit of complaining. When I was with Henry, things would happen and…well…" Betty was speechless.

"Well, now that you know your future, why not change it?" Gio suggested. Betty didn't respond to Gio, but just stood there lost in thought. "I don't know about you, but I could use a bit to eat. My uncle has a sandwich shop, would you be interested? It would be my treat.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Monopoly Club? If you go to your uncle's then your cover is blown." Betty had a look of confusion in her face.

"Nah…Uncle Fabrizio is cool. He knows that I don't go to Monopoly Club." Gio grinned as Betty followed him. When they entered the shop, Betty got a strange sense of déjà vu.

"I've been here before…" Betty took the familiar site into place. "It's…it's your shop." She turned to Gio.

"Seriously, I have no plans to take over this business. My five year plan involves scoring with Britney Spears." Gio nodded his head as Betty rolled her eyes.

"Go for it." She replied, with a hint of laughter in her voice. "You'll be in the psych ward before long."

"Ah…Giovanni…what can I get for you and your special…er…lady?" a portly man greeted Gio and smiled at Betty.

"2008, this is my Uncle Fabrizio." Gio introduced them and Betty smiled politely.

"She looks like she can use a chicken salad sandwich. I'll have the same." Betty wanted to interrupt because she remembered that her thirteen-year-old self didn't like chicken salad, but Gio waved her interjection off.

A few moments later, Betty found herself biting into a chicken salad sandwich. To her surprise. "MMM…this is really good Gio." She replied when Gio joined her. Gio looked down at the floor. "What's wrong?" she asked, mouth full of food.

"I have a little confession to make." He looked up at her and grinned. "I made the chicken salad and not my uncle."

"Gio! God, this is amazing. I told you that you have sandwich making skills in your blood." She grinned.

"I have other plans." He sighed.

"Someone once told me about fate. Maybe its fate that I hate chicken salad sandwiches as a teenager, but once I tried yours, I like it." She winked and finished her sandwich.

"You're a strange one Betty Suarez." Gio smiled and looked at his watch. "Time to get you back…" Gio stood up and Betty quickly looked at the clock, not sure that Gio meant. Suddenly, she looked up and she was staring into the face of a teenage blonde boy.

"Daniel? I thought you were Gio…" Betty looked around.

"Betty, this is your dream, not mine. I do have to tell you something." Daniel smiled and sat down nest to her.

"Daniel, you're not going to tell me any gross jokes are you?" Betty scrunched

"What are you doing to yourself Betty?" Daniel asked, ignoring her comment.

"What do you mean?" Betty asked.

"You're coping, but not in a healthy way." Daniel advised her.

"You're 13, what do you know about coping?" Betty asked sarcastically.

"I know more than you think. Everyone thinks you're crazy because apparently you're from the future, but I understand Betty." Daniel stood up and began to leave but turned to her. "You're smart Betty. It's time to make better choices with your life. Start with where you left off in the future." He smiled. "See you bright and early at work Monday morning. Coffee and a toasted bagel." He grinned and left.

Betty sat motionless for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to come out of the dream. "I guess I could always slip and fall again." She said aloud as she poured a glass of water from an empty table on the floor. "Here goes nothing."

Betty slipped on the water, and took one final look at 1998.


	10. Wake Up Call

Betty slowly came to. She could vaguely make out the face that was staring down at her. Maybe she was delusional, but he had a halo around his head. Wait, no that was just a light behind his head.

"Where am I?" Betty asked as she opened her eyes. She saw that she was looking into Gio's face.

"Well you're in the hospital. Someone had a little too much fun at Coney Island." He smirked and helped her up.

"Where's…where's Henry?" Betty asked immediately.

"He's gone Betty. He left for Tucson. It's just you and me." He reassured her. Suddenly the door swung open as Ignacio and Hilda rushed in, pushing Gio into a chair. "Is this a reoccurring action you take on me?" He joked. Hilda rolled her eyes.

"Ay, Betty…when Gio called he had us worried about you, chica!" Hilda held Betty's face in her hands.

"I'm fine…really…I was just…" Betty paused, not really remembering what had happened to cause her to be in this state.

"We went to Coney Island together and Betty had a few beers and she ran into a wooden board." Gio informed them.

"Mija, what have we told you about drinking…?" Ignacio inquired gently.

"Only drink margaritas after seven, I know." Betty grimaced as pain shot down her side.

"Exactly. Well hopefully you have learned your lesson." Ignacio smiled at Betty and turned to Gio. "So Coney Island then…" He grinned.

"Well, it was just a one time thing." Gio reassured Betty's family, although he didn't sound too convincing.

"Can I have a word with Gio, alone?" Betty asked. Her family gave her a meaningful look and then looked at Gio.

"Hey! I didn't get her pregnant or on drugs if that's what you're thinking!" Gio teased. Ignacio and Hilda chuckled as they left. "Are you sure you're alright…I mean with…everything?" Gio asked as he sat down next to Betty.

"Fine. I want to apologize. I've acted really foolish today. While I was out…I realized something…" Betty faltered with her words slightly.

"Yeah?" Gio pressed for her to continue.

"I guess I really figured something out about myself. I had this vision of me back in 1998, but with the knowledge about my future. You were there and so was Amanda and Daniel. You…well little Gio made me realize something….shut up!" Betty suddenly commented on his sly grin at 'little Gio' and continued. "Well, I realized that I need to change myself. I'm not who I expected I would be."

"Really?" Gio asked.

"It's funny, but I thought that with Henry everything I could have ever wanted, I would have. He's in Tucson now…and I have to accept that. I am ready to take plenty of chances now." Betty replied.

"It's funny that you bring that up…" Gio shifted in his seat and reached for something in his back pocket. "I don't mean it to be anything big…but I'm going to Italy…well now is your chance to take chances…I want you to come to Italy with me…and take a chance with me." Gio looked at Betty and waited for her response.

"I don't know Gio that would require a big jump for me, I just…I don't really know if I'm ready." Betty responded.

"Think about it. I have to get to my deli. You've kept me up with worry." He touched her forehead and left.

"Ay, did Gio just have plane tickets in his hand?" Hilda asked as she returned with Ignacio.

"Well…yeah he did. He just invited me to go with him to Italy…I mean…nothing romantic or anything." Betty reassured them. Hilda rolled her eyes.

"Mija, a boy doesn't ask friends to go to Italy with him. I think he sees you as more than a friend. You need to make a choice. It's time to be a grownup now." Ignacio had never really given love advice to his daughter, until now.

"I just don't feel that way about Gio." Betty lied. She had started having feelings for Gio awhile back.

"Well are you ready to go home then? The doctor says you can go whenever you're ready." Hilda informed her. Betty nodded. She was tired and she missed her own bed.

An hour later, Betty found herself sitting in her own room. She picked up Pocquito and held him tight. There were too many thoughts on her mind at the moment. She officially realized she might be feeling the L word for Gio when she met little Gio. Little Gio challenged her. Suddenly, she remembered the time capsule. She grabbed her purse and bolted downstairs. A ghost from the past stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Betty…" She stopped short when she saw Henry standing there with Gerber daisies.

"Henry, what are you doing here?" Betty asked. She didn't want to deny that seeing him made her have butterflies in her stomach.

"I couldn't wait any longer…Betty…I'm in love with you and it tore me apart leaving you." Henry paused and noticed that he had an audience composed of Hilda, Ignacio, and Justin.

"What are you saying?' Betty asked.

Henry got down on one knee. "Betty, this is the spot where you held me and told me everything was going to be alright. Now, I am at this same spot and I want to assure you everything will be alright. We'd make a great team Betty. Will you marry me?" Henry took out a beautiful ring as Betty tried to catch her breath.

Hilda gasped and Ingacio frowned. "Henry…" tears swelled in Betty's eyes.

"I've been an awful jerk lately. We can make this work, I promise." Henry pleaded.

Betty nodded. "Yes, I'll marry you." She smiled and took Henry into a loving embrace. It didn't feel like she enjoyed it though. Something didn't feel right. She suddenly thought of Gio.

"I can't wait to tell everyone I know!" Henry kissed Betty without much passion and ran off, leaving Betty with a ringer on her finger and a look of confusion on her face.

Betty found herself in front of Gio's deli. How she got there, she didn't have a clue. She knew that she would have to break the news to Gio. It was funny to her that she worried about how he might take it. She sighed as she opened the door.

"Betty, hey…so I've been thinking about all the great things we could do in Italy." Gio said excitedly.

"Gio…" She started sadly.

"My cousin rents gondolas out to tourists and we could ride on one all afternoon…." Gio was lost in all the incredible things he could offer her.

"Gio…" Betty tried again.

"Oh and the wine is phenomenal. I know you probably haven't made up your mind, but there are so many things that even I haven't done." Gio suddenly looked at Betty for the first time.

"Gio, I've made up my mind." Betty said sadly. Gio could tell what her answer was from her face. Then his eyes glanced at something sparkly on her ring finger.

"So, he came back." Gio said bitterly.

"Yes. I'm engaged." Betty said sadly.

"Funny, I thought you'd be ecstatic about this. You don't sound too thrilled." Gio replied.

"I didn't want to disappoint you." Betty replied.

"Well you haven't. I'm happy for you." Gio suddenly became distracted. "I have things to do. I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow night…so if you don't mind it's going to get busy." Gio didn't look at her as he began wiping tables.

Betty was at a loss for words. This was harder than she thought it would be. Suddenly, she remembered the time capsule that little Gio buried. A small smile crept on her face as she made her way to the location. Maybe she would have answers and finally be able to put her feelings for Gio to a rest. She approached the wooded area where Gio buried the time capsule cautiously, as though something would come out of the woods.

"Well, here I am." She replied to herself. She noticed something white sticking out of the ground. She dug it up with her bare hands and opened the crumbled paper.

_To thine own self be true._

"Shakespeare…" She smiled to herself. Somehow this little phrase made sense. She knew exactly what her next move would be.

The ride to LaGuardia was short. Betty felt butterflies building up in her stomach. She knew she would be surprising Gio. She knew the choice she was about to make would be the right one. She realized that she had fallen in love with him after all. The ring still glittered on her ring finger. Being short did not help her find Gio through the crowd waiting to get their boarding pass with _Air Italia_. Finally, she spotted him.

"Gio!" She ran up to him. Gio looked bewildered.

"Betty I don't really have time for this. I already know who you've chosen. Now let me have my peace." Gio turned to leave.

"What would I be doing here if I had chosen Henry?" Betty's words stopped Gio as he turned back to her.

"Are you being serious?" Gio asked as Betty nodded.

"I can't go to Italy with you Gio…I'm sorry." Betty said sadly. Gio's excited face fell.

"Oh…well…I have a flight to catch." Gio's words felt like they were clinging in his throat.

"…but I'll be here waiting for you when you get back." Betty smiled. "I choose you, Gio. This might not make sense to you but: _to thine own self be true_." Betty smiled more broadly.

"Hamlet. Of course I know who said that. Great play…" Gio smiled.

"My mother used to always say that quote to me…to keep me on track with my goals. See you're the train track that I could never jump the tracks from. You're the path I need to go on now." Betty grinned and stepped closer to Gio.

"That wasn't the best analogy." Gio grinned and took in her scent.

"I know…but we have plenty of time to work on that." Betty put her arms around Gio's shoulders and kissed him. "Time is definitely on our side."

"I'll be back soon, I promise. I already have our first date planned." Gio said.

"Really?" Betty was curious. "We'll you'd better be careful that I don't meet any sandwich boy while you're gone."

"Just as long as he's not as hot as me." Gio responded.

"Nothing compares to you…" Betty grinned and kissed Gio another time. This was more passionate.

"When I get back, let's give them something to talk about." Gio grinned.

"Eh, you're a little late with that one…." Betty responded.

"Nah…I'm not." Gio shot back.

"You are." Betty grinned.

"Are not." Gio smiled.

"Would you leave already before I change my mind." Betty smiled as she let go of Gio's hand.

She watched him leave. She was completely happy with the way things turned out.


End file.
